Measurement of Customer Services Regarding Services Provided by Transport Corporation of India

The core business of a transporter is to move the consignor's consignment to the consignee within the stipulated time in perfect order and at the most competitive cost. Responding to the changing customer demands many transport companies also provide more value-added services such as warehousing, distribution and total logistics solutions. The services offered by the transport industry vary according to the sophistication of the transport service provider. The larger and more comprehensive transporter companies offer a full range of transportation and logistics services including warehousing, consolidations, air express, trucking, distribution and customs clearance, tracing and monitoring of freight being transported, applying Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) technology to facilitate Just-In-Time based supply chain management. Transport Corporation of India Ltd, is a well-known Indian transport company which is a complete global logistics service provider, highly concentrated on the user giving them full satisfaction. In the Indian Transport industry TCI positioned number one. There are many parameters for being positioned as number one like providing excellent and faster services, having every kind of transportation facility through which the good can be transported domestically as well as across the Indian boundaries. 'I'he list of services which TCI is providing to their customers is very-very wide that is the they are in field logistics. In the bulk carrying capacity TCI has fully equipped to handle bulk/FTL (full truck load) movements from anywhere to anywhere. Their Network of 1000 company owned offices makes them closest to any source of raw material or any plant or any customer in the country. They offer unique advantage as:- • Multi Location • Multimodal movements • Own more than 100 TEU‘s (Twenty Foot Equivalent) containers for movement of high Value • Computerized track and trace facilities • All direct (no transshipments) movements for shorter lead-time. Also for small LTL (less than truck load) transportation requirement the branch network ensures that deliveries can be made in every district of the country. The size of the cargo does not matter. Company Hubs consolidate and move the cargo speedily. Trace and track facility for the cargo available through the extensive computerized network.

Van Vugt et al. (1996) the researcher states that the conducted an investigation on motivational factors which lead to making decisions to travel by

social value orientation, the commuting situation and a series of post experimental questions. The findings provided strong evidence for the conclusion that the individuals saving travel time and need more trips of public transport. Journal of service marketing, 9 (5), 30-41. Tor Wallin Andreassen, (1995) in his research work argued that the Public services are offered to the public based on the principle of equality. Private services on the other hand are based on differentiation. These differences raise the question of whether customer preferences for public services are homogeneous while preferences for private services are heterogeneous. Builds on an empirical study of 1,000 customers using either bus, train or tram in and around the greater area of the capital of Norway. Discusses customer (dis)satisfaction with public transportation services. Concludes by claiming that individual customer preferences exist and that high – and low‐frequency users of public transportation services have different preferences. As a consequence, the industry has a low overall customer satisfaction score. Implementing differentiated public services will improve the satisfaction score, i.e. expected utility, and thereby reduce the need for privatizing the industry According to Oktiani Astuti Budioono (2009), in his research study draft that, an increase in population generates increasing in travel demand. This study focuses on traveler‘s satisfaction with service quality attributes. Using self-rate questionnaire to investigate overall customer satisfaction and factor that influence public transport users‘ satisfaction. Data were analyzed using descriptive, correlation, factor and regression analysis. One main finding reported that customer is not satisfied yet with public transport service (M=2.5, SD=0.9). The correlation analysis reported frequency (r=.50,p=.001), comfort travel by bus (r=.49,p=.001), on board security (r=.48,p=.001),and travel time (r=.48,p=.001), are top four factors that positively correlate with overall satisfaction. Factor analysis grouped fourteen specific service quality attributes into two factors, functional and soft factor. Both the functional quality factor and soft quality factor demonstrated significant effect on overall customer satisfaction with public transport in Indonesia. The standardized regression coefficient reported that functional quality factors (β=.393, p=.001) that consist of frequency, price, punctuality and travel time, plays stronger influence on overall customer satisfaction than soft factor (β=.288, p=.001). It is highly recommended to pay more attention on functional factor in order to improve and develop attractive and marketable public transport. From regression analysis suggested that two factor that were measure only have low influence on overall customer satisfaction, and it is interesting to

Research Methodology is a way to systematically solve the research program. The determination of research methodology is the most important part of it as one has to decide what techniques should be adopted. The choice of technique depends upon the scope and nature of marketing research.

• To find the satisfaction level of customers from service provide by TCI • To Recommend the suggestions for the improvement of the services

The present study is exploratory research and conclusive research for survey-based researches. The different methods that are used for primary data collection are: - personal interview, telephonic interview. Data from the secondary sources for the study was collected from the branches. A total of 82 customers were personally interviewed during the span of 45 days in different location of Hisar. Descriptive Statistics is used as statistical tool for the analysis of data

Majority of customers feel that they found availability of vehicle at every time. Some customer feel that their demands are not fulfill every time. Customer?

It is found that Almost customers are easily reach to company branch and get easy Booking Just few customers feel that branch as far away. Question 3. How much time the customer gets their consignment tracking information?

• Updated track information is available to half of customer. • Other 50% are not satisfied with tracking info. Provide to them. Question 4. What is the Response of customer about the Rate charge by the company?

• About 2\3rd of total customers perceive that company is providing service at competitive rate. • Remaining 40% customers perceive that TCI rates are high in all segments. Question 5. What the customer thinks about the routes/network of TCI?

• Nearly 50% Customers are much satisfied with the network of TCI for transportation purposes. • All customers say that TCI has large network overall India. Question 6. What does the customer thinks about time taken in the booking formalities?

• Nearly all customers of TCI consider that booking formalities are easy and customer friendly. • Majority of customer think that document formalities increase the security for customer. Question 7. What is the overall experience of customer in booking?

• Overall satisfactory experience is felt by the customer about TCI Booking; they don‘t feel any difficulty in Booking. Question 8. How much time customer gets the timely service?

consignment delivery on time. • Other customers feel problems with delivery in sundry consignments sometimes. Question 9. What is the condition of the material when customer gets the delivery at destination?

• About 75% customers are saying condition of material is good, they don‘t find damaged material. • Customers feel problem in scrap material.

Presently customers are smarter due to availability of information and many choices. They are more conscious about quality, price and brand image of product and service. So it‘s more challenging to delight them and retain them. When the customers feel satisfaction only then they may be loyal. So to satisfy and retain customers is more challenging for company in today‘s competitive world. If company wants to run his business smoothly then for this it requires loyal customers because loyal customers plays important role in making profits. That‘s why large number of companies focuses on making customer loyal. To do this first they have to satisfy customers because satisfaction is the first step to make a customer loyal.

Kothari, CR (2003). Research Methodology, New Delhi, Vikas publicing house Pvt. Ltd. Kotler Philip (1997). Marketing Management, New Delhi, Prentices Hall of India Pvt. Ltd. GOI. Review of the Performance of State Road Transport Undertakings , Government of Highways, 2016-17, pp. 1-40. Greene DL, Wegener M. (1997). Sustainable transport. Journal of Transport Geography, 1997; 5: pp. 177-190. Agarwal O.P. (2006). Urban Transport, India Infrastructure Report, 3i Network, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 110. Government of Tamilnadu Policy note on Transport, 2016-17, http://www.tn.gov.in. http//www.google.com.

www.google.com www.tcil.com

Research Scholar, H.SB., G.J.U.S. & T., Hisar