Analyzing travelers' attitude towards ride-hailing services in developing countries: Case of Lahore,Pakistan

Ride-hailing services are gaining momentum to meet the urban travel demand in the absence of proper public transport in developing countries. To the best of our knowledge, research on passenger's behavior and attitude towards the service quality of ride-hailing services and certainly studies focusing on developing countries are quite rare. Ride-hailing services were launched to meet the travel demand of residents throughout the city of Lahore, Pakistan in 2015. A revealed preferences study of 865 respondents consisting their demographic, travel information and perceptions related to selected attributes of service quality was carried out to examine their attitude and behavior towards the use of ride-hailing services in Lahore, Pakistan.Most of the users of these services are young, well-educated and have relatively high income. The travelers who were using Rickshaw services before are found to be the frequent users of these services and ride-hailing services have started replacing respondents' previous modes of travel. Exploratory factor analysis were employed on collected data to identify the factors effecting the traveler's perceptions regarding the use of ride-hailing services and structural model of users' satisfaction were constructed based on these factors later.The results exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that significant determinants of passenger's satisfaction with ride-hailing services are coverage and accessibility attributes (CAA), instrumental attributes (IA), service attraction attributes (SAA) and safety attributes (SA). The number of trips, trip purpose, income, education, time since the use of these services, profession and household size are also significant parameters in the determination of traveler's behavior and attitude towards the use of ride-hailing services in Lahore city. The commuter's overall satisfaction with service quality of app-based services have positive association with travelers intentions to continue use of app-based services and their believe that these services have filled the gap of public transport in the city and replacing previous modes of travel. The further improvements in attributes will enhance the traveler's satisfaction with these services. Insight into the attitude and perceptions of travelers would be useful for the transport planners, ride-hailing companies and policy makers for making appropriate improvements in the services and giving them space in existing transport system.