Ranking of Suburban Bus Passenger Transport Companies Using Multiple-Attribute Decision Making Methods

One of the fundamental demands of individuals in today's societies is undoubtedly improving the quality of public transportation services. In order to compete in this context, passenger transport companies need to identify the factors affecting passengers’ satisfaction and the services quality criteria based on their point of view and while evaluating their own situation, they should take action to improve their status and obtain passengers’ satisfaction. The aim of the present study is to prioritize passenger transport companies using a hybrid approach of Analytical Network Process (ANP) and Additive Ratio Assessment (ARAS). For this purpose, at first 35 relevant criteria were identified through a review on literature and existing research background. Then, by distributing the questionnaires among the managers and experts of cooperatives of Gilan province, 19 important factors were determined and classified into 6 main categories. In the next step, the relationships between the factors were identified according to experts’ opinions. Then, using ANP, the weights of the factors were calculated and their significances were determined; and finally, ARAS method was used to rank active bus companies in Rasht County. The results show that services criteria and quality assurance, cost and reliability are more important factors. Responding to customer needs and complaints, ticket prices, and staff’s respect for customers were identified as the most important sub-criteria. The study also showed that the top companies in terms of quality of services are Royal Safar Iranian, Sir-o-safar, and Hamsafar Rah-e Baran, respectively.