A Survey of Operations Strategies Pursued by Interurban PSV Bus Companies in Kenya

Abstract

Great challenges have been experienced in transport industry due to globalization and liberalization. It is very critical therefore that they look at their operations strategies in order for them to be competitive in this turbulent market. This research sought to find out the operations strategies that are pursued by interurban bus firms, as a way of remaining competitive. The other objective was to survey on the challenges faced by these firms in formulation and implementation of these competitive priorities. A semi- structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data. Data was thereafter, analyzed using descriptive statistics through use of means scores, percentages and content analysis. Inferential statistics:- Wilcoxon signed rank test and Kruskall Wallis test were used to test whether there are any significant differences among the rankings of the various competitive priorities. The findings of this research indicated that, PSV bus firms acknowledge that operations based strategies enhance the competitive capability of the firms by contributing to the long term business performance and success. The study also found that, the competitive priorities on which PSV bus firms compete in their order of rank were: (1) Timeliness, (2) Cost, (3) Reliability, (4) Quality (6) Customer care, (7) Service quality, (8) Flexibility and (9) Fare Incentives. It also collected data on the challenges faced in formulating and implementation of these strategies: Key Words: Operations Strategies, Competitive priorities and Competitive capability which have been used interchangeably in this project.