Abstract:

Public bus transport system meets the travel needs of the people. It needs efficient and effective management for it to be cost-effective and economically viable. ‘Marketing orientation’ in management helps in achieving this and an organization that shows concern for this is a responsive organisation and the ‘degree of responsiveness’ is an indicator of how good an organization is marketing-oriented. The passengers though heterogeneous in their travel needs, desires and perceptions, different customer-segments of travellers may have differences in perceptions and ‘desired level’ of the service attributes. The data required were on the attitudes and opinions of bus passengers on various service features/attributes, which are ‘determinant’ or ‘truly decisive’ in preferring or choosing a particular service. Data collected from which were collected from passenger survey on-board the buses along Palghat - Coimbatore and Palghat - Calicut routes, have been analysed, first for the level of importance and then for the ‘determinant’ nature of different service features. Segmentation of the passenger market has been done and Cluster analysis was done. Statistical tools, like the Z and Chi-square tests, Correlation and Regression analysis have been done before drawing inferences on ‘Responsiveness’ of different operators which has been gauged and an Index developed to indicate responsiveness and marketing orientation.. The perceived ‘service profiles’ of operators are mapped using the “Semantic Differential” concept to give a visual indication of responsiveness, for formulating appropriate management strategies.