Economic attributes of quality and competitiveness on the market of road freight transport services

Abstract

Motivation: The basic quality attributes of transport services are safety and timely deliveries and are determined by the clients. Many studies on quality on the transportation markets concern the user perception or certified management systems. Improving service quality is related to organizational changes, involvement of human and capital resources. At the same time, it does not necessarily mean implementing ISO standards. Moreover, an analysis of the literature revealed an informational niche as regards the factors affecting the quality of services from the service providers' perspective. Aim: The purpose of this article is to identify factors affecting the quality of services. The reference point of that analysis is the market supply and economic activities taken to improve service quality. In addition, an attempt was made to determine the relationship between quality and competitiveness. The analysis includes endogenous (actions taken by carriers and need of investing) and exogenous (regarding transport and economic policy) factors. Taking into consideration the economic aspect of improving service quality and carrier's perspective the article aims at enrichment the information niche. Results: The results proved that the most important factors in creating quality of road freight services include, among others, educated staff, technical condition of vehicles and ensuring the safety of transportation processes. Unfair competition processes were identified as the factor with the strongest impact on competitiveness of road carriers. In addition, it was pointed about that there is strong and positive correlation between service quality and competitiveness.