Empirical study on the service quality of the cargo delivery process at the Port of Colombo: based on the perceptions of clearing agents

This paper is based on an empirical study conducted during 2014 to investigate the service quality of cargo clearing process at the Port of Colombo. Service quality has become a major concern for many service ports in the world due to ever increasing expectations of port customers, the benefits provided by technology advancement in the port sector, and emerging private sector involvement in port activities. Thus, the aim of this study is to evaluate the gap between the expected service quality and the perceived service quality of land side port customers of the Port of Colombo by using the SERVQUAL method. As proposed by the ROPMIS model study, the six maritime service quality dimensions are measured by a total of 19 factors designed by addressing the issues in the process of cargo clearing. Service quality gaps were analysed according to the weighted SERVQUAL scores and descriptive analysing methods with SPSS software. The study reveals that customers are highly dissatisfied with relevance to the quality dimensions of process, outcome and resources followed by management. Therefore the Port managers should focus on improving customer services by changing the current practices adopted by the port while improving physical resources.