Importers’ Satisfaction with the service of multimodal transportation system: the case of Ethiopia

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper was to examine importers’ satisfaction with Multimodal Transport System currently being practiced by Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Services Enterprise. The related theoretical literatures and empirical studies were incorporated in this study to provide a theoretical basis for the development of the research. Importing and exporting in trade management are becoming an assignment for Ethiopia since it has paramount contribution to the national economic development and for the business people to be successful. The data were collected from importers through self-administered questionnaires from selected respondents. Analysis ranging from simple descriptive statistics to exploratory factor analysis is used to analyze the data. The findings have suggested that in order to improve the services of Multimodal Transport System, the Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Services Enterprise should work on how to improve the unsatisfactory areas by using appropriate technology and legal requirements. Importers expectation of the Multimodal Transport System services showed that they were unsatisfied with cost, performance, time and reliability of information in using the services. As a result, it is clear that beneficiaries are not satisfied with the services which were significantly related to importers satisfaction. The study concluded that in using the services of Multimodal Transport System, transit cost is not minimized, performance activities of Multimodal Transport System is not as promised to importers, time is not saved in using the services, importers are doubtful of Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Services Enterprise information and importers have expectations concerning damage, documentation accuracy of the Multimodal Transport System.