Service Quality in Maritime Transportation

Abstract

As the world's population continue to grow, consumption increases, and because no country is entirely self-sufficient, countries relay on maritime trade to sell what they have and buy what they need. Thus, a low-cost and efficient maritime transportation system plays an important role for sustaining development and world exchange. Maritime transportation is an economic activity exposed to strong competition, which is constantly forcing shipping companies to improve their services. A shipping firm can satisfy its customers by offering low-cost or differentiated services, however one way to be at top of the competitor and retain its customers on the long-term is offering a high-quality service through different aspects. Service quality is an abstract construct and even though numerous models were developed to measure service quality, mainly SERVQUAL Model, it was claimed to be generic and not adequate for the evaluation of service quality in the shipping industry. This study attempted to identify and measure the important factors and dimensions used to assess the shipping service quality and its impact on the customer's choice of a liner shipping company.