This study compares customers' perceptions of service quality of public sector Road Transport Corporations of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Service quality of both the transport corporations have been measured using SERVPERF (Service Performance) and measures based on passenger road transport industry. A total of 185 respondents participated from Andhra Pradesh and 172 from Tamil Nadu in the survey, yielding 357 usable total responses. A pilot test showed that most of the respondents were regular users of road transport corporation bus services of either state. Individual measures were subjected to reliability analysis in accordance with their predicted dimensions. Based on the analysis using coefficient alpha, all the dimensions showed acceptable reliability. A set of stepwise regression analyses was performed for each sample to determine differential effects of SERVPERF and industry-based measures on customer satisfaction with road transport services. The results of the study indicate that passengers of Andhra Pradesh are generally more satisfied with their public sector road transport service than passengers of Tamil Nadu on most of the SERVPERF dimensions. The results from the regression analyses offer significant insights into road transport corporations. First, the results indicate that customers of Andhra Pradesh think of service reliability and ease of using the service as the key factors determining the passenger road transport service quality. On the other hand, passengers of Tamil Nadu generally consider reliability and assurance as the most important factors and other industry-based service items as less important. The study demonstrates that the SERVPERF scale is applicable and usable in inter-state studies in an emerging economy like India. Further, this study also demonstrates the validity of service reliability as a key predictor in both satisfaction and repatronization.

The services sector in India is growing rapidly in line with the global trend. In 1999-00 the share of services in India's GDP was 49.8% and in 2004-2005 it became 57.6% (Central Statistical Organization Report, 2005). Services are increasingly attracting attention from academicians as well as practitioners. The proliferation of services not only provides business opportunities, but also poses high level competitive threats to service marketers. In fact, many researchers and marketers have focused their attention on customer evaluations of services to find ways to improve service quality (Fisk et al., 1993). However, despite the considerable amount of research under the rubric of service quality that has accumulated over the years, few studies to date have examined customer perceptions of service quality in passenger transportation services in an international setting and still less in the Indian context. This issue is of paramount concern to service marketers because the perceived service quality often reflects customers' levels of satisfaction and intention to repatronize the services. If service quality perceptions are standardized, firms may choose to control costs by standardizing operations and marketing strategies.

Public Sector Road Transport Corporations: A Comparative Study of Service Quality Perceptions,service, quality, services, transport, reliability, SERVPERF, customer, marketers, results, satisfaction, measures, passenger, perceptions, analyses, respondents, regression, industrybased, corporations, analysis, demonstrates, economy, emerging, examined, accumulated, attracting, increasingly, industry, Individual, international, interstate