Public transportation and service quality management during the COVID-19 outbreak: A case study of Tunisia

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the quality management of public transportation services in the Tunisian context during the COVID-19 outbreak. The empirical study was based on the conjoint analysis approach. The sample collected is composed of 250 individuals who often use the train as a means of transport and the pairwise comparison method is adopted for conjoint analysis. This study assesses quality management of customer service and takes into account four aspects of service quality such as comfort, way of reservation (possibility of online booking), speed, and safety. The findings revealed that the optimal combination of service offered by the Tunisian national railway company is characterized by the terms “first class”, “online booking”, “express”, and “safety”. It is favored by Tunisian customers during the COVID-19 outbreak.Additionally, the results show that the maximum utility corresponds to the “safety train” modality followed by “second class”, “online booking”, and finally “stopover”. Moreover, the use of new information and communication technologies (NICT) has importance for train users during the COVID-19 outbreak. Indeed, Tunisians are looking for safety and measures to reduce crowding in a train, to minimize the risk of contagion of COVID-19 outbreak.