ASSESSMENT ON THE EFFECT OF KALITY DRY PORT SERVICE ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Abstract

Since the independency of Eritrea in 1991, Ethiopia became landlocked. As a result, the countries 90 % of Import and export trade route become Ethiopia- Djibouti corridor. In order to ease some of the problems in the transit countries, Ethiopia has started constructing dry ports .A dry port is a recent phenomenon in the Ethiopian logistics history. The Addis Ababa dry port Kality branch is among the youngest dry ports established in Ethiopia. Even though, the increased importance of dry port to entire economy of the country and terminal services and the associated inefficiencies and drawbacks in service quality, Customers using the port, however, complain that the port does not deliver an efficient service to its clients. This study is expected to exhibit factors leads customer dissatisfaction and contribute for improvement based on the findings. The focus of this paper is to assess the effect of Kality dry port service on customer satisfaction, based on the port service dimension LPI (Logistics performance index) cargo handling equipment, customs operations, port infrastructure, and size of dry port, port staff, and reliability of port. To address the stated research questions, the researcher used descriptive research design. Data was collected from both primary and secondary source; primary data were collected through questionnaires and for secondary data document analysis were made. The study employed probability sampling techniques to select the participant of the study and accordingly, an aggregate of 167 respondents were selected and participated in this study and out of these, data were obtained from 153 respondents. The data were analyzed uses measurement of inferential analysis uses correlation and regression analysis to assess the relationship between the service delivery dimensions and customer perceived satisfaction. The finding shows that the overall service delivered by dry port was not satisfactory. Based on the findings of the study it were recommended that investment in port infrastructure, improvement in efficiency of customs operations, expansion of port area, training and implementation of control system on port staff to satisfy logistics service of the port user are important.