Consumer perceptions of long-distance ride-sharing services in South Africa

Abstract

The research focuses on the analysis of consumer perception towards a long-distance peer-to-peer ridesharing service. Due to the rising cost of living, travelling has become a challenge. While other people are already hitchhiking to reduce spending on travelling, some are a bit hesitant due to the risk associated with it. The research proposes that to address challenges associated with hitchhiking, a platform which only allows those who have been vetted for security purposes can access and share their travelling plans. Such a platform which ideally works if both the driver and the passenger have an intention to travel the same distance is linked to shared travelling costs. Qualitative analysis is used to identify the factors that affect consumer perception towards adoption of long-distance ridesharing services and quantitative analysis is used to analyse and rank the factors. This research examines the seven factors which include: perceived usefulness, perceived risk, perceived ease of use, compatibility, trust, social influence, and facilitating conditions. These factors are analysed to identify the socio-economic attributes that drive them. Results obtained highlight that there is a relationship between perceived usefulness and travelling frequency, age, level of education, ridesharing history and earnings. The younger generation agrees that such a platform is useful while the older and more educated population do not agree. It is believed that this is because they still have enough funds to travel alone. Results also suggest that social influence has a relationship with earnings and age. The older population do not agree that they can be influenced by society when choosing to adopt long-distance ridesharing while the younger generation is more likely to be influenced. Results also show that those with higher levels of education and high-income earners do consider risk as an important factor when adopting ridesharing services while the younger generation is comfortable with the level of risk they are used to in the current ehailing services. Participants in the survey were also asked to rank these factors according to their importance. The ranking was compared to a similar exercise which was done in India. It was found that these rankings are different meaning that studies done in other countries may not necessarily apply in another countr