Solutions for the Use of Smart Technology in Transportation
Babaleye, Tolulope Ayomide |
Greblikaite, Jolita |
The focus of this study is the impacts of smart-technology motorcycle-taxi services in some parts of Nigeria. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the socio-economic impacts of the smart-technology transportation and logistics operators in the selected study areas in order to improve their service delivery. The study was motivated by the public complaints around the informal motorcycle-taxi arrangements in the study areas and the subsequent introduction of modern smart-technology assisted transportation models, with the intension to advance the public transportation in the areas under consideration. The target smart-technology companies under investigation are GOKADA, SafeBoda and KONGA. This work will analyze the opinions, preferences and demographic characteristics of five categories of the stakeholders involved in the smart-technology businesses under focus. The stakeholders are regular passengers, irregular/occasional passengers, regular order recipients, irregular order recipients, and bike drivers. The empirical data collection of this study consists of survey and interviews of participants with a profound understanding of the smart-technology transportation. A survey was conducted among two hundred and thirty end- users and operators of smart-technology motorcycle-taxi system in the two commercial cities of Lagos and Ibadan, Nigeria. The sharing proportions of questionnaires among the respondents in the study areas was informed by the preliminary information and recommendations of stakeholders, as follows; Ibadan (45%), Lagos (55%). The survey was conducted using structured and unstructured questionnaires. All the interviews were transcribed, analyzed, compared with other existing cases, presented through descriptive statistics and conclusions drawn using PEST and SWOT analyses. The results from this study will give an understanding of the activities and impacts of the three smart- technology based motorcycle-taxi companies in the selected study areas, towards the sustainable transportation and logistics services. The results from this work show that the introduction of smart-technology motorcycle-taxi system has helped businesses grow in the study areas and should be given support by the government. Youth participation in the smart- technology transport system will boost the economy and provide jobs for the teaming youths. Women involvement and confidence in the new transport arrangement is a welcome development and is commendable. In view of the foregoing, more research work should be conducted on the activities of other smart transport companies for more positive impacts. The service providers are implored to extend their services to other high impact areas like health and accident related ones.