Improving service quality in air cargo transport – The case of Nippon Express Vietnam

Abstract

Service quality in the air cargo transport has become a crucial element leading to an impact on the company business. The case of Nippon Express Vietnam (NEV) in Ho Chi Minh City is not an exception. The thesis research question is to find out what the decisive determinants of service quality in air cargo transport are and to study how customers perceive the service quality of NEV in Ho Chi Minh City. The research methodology is the combination of the qualitative method by interviewing 10 selected NEV’s current customers and 5 selected managers within the company and the quantitative method through the survey of 72 questionnaires. Based on data analysis from the interviews, a questionnaire on Google Form is built and sent to respondents. The data is processed by SPSS software and Excel computation. The findings reveal the most decisive determinant of service quality in air transports is ‘deliver cargo on time as promised’, followed by ‘low risk of lost or damaged cargo’. Concerning the case of NEV, the services attributes evaluated with such a high perception followed by ‘strong global flight network to serve different destinations’. In contrast, three services attributes that NEV cannot meet the expectation of their clients. There exists an implication for service providers that they need to transport goods to the right place at the right time in good conditions. Therefore, they are recommended to strengthen the ground operation by closely monitoring and evaluating the operation performance of the ground handling agents.