Determinants of service delivery at the port of Mombasa, Kenya

Abstract

Kenya Port Authority is still facing myriad challenges such as infrastructural development, high logistical costs and unskilled workforce affecting its service delivery. It was in this regard that the researcher sought to establish determinants of service delivery at the Port of Mombasa. This study was guided by the following specific objectives; to examine the effect of information, determine the effect of infrastructure, and to assess the influence of custom clearance process on service delivery at the Port of Mombasa. The study was built on human capital theory, Servqual model and queuing theory as pillars of this study. The research study adopted a explanatory research design. Target population was 1200 consisting of clearing and forwarding agents, shipping agents, transporters and warehousing firms. A closed ended structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from 137 sampled respondents. A pilot study was conducted to ascertain the reliability and validity of the instruments. The quality and consistency of the study was further assessed using Cronbach’s alpha. Data presentation in form frequency counts, percentages, means, standard deviations, regression and correlation was presented in form of tables. It was detetermined that r 2 =0.625 which implied that infrastructure development, customs service clearance, information systemms and staff competency can explained 62.5% of service delivery at KPA. The P- value of 0.000 (Less than 0.05) implies that the model of was significant at the 95% confidence level. The study found out that information system significantly contributes to the improvement of service delivery (β 1 =0.259; P=0.000). It was also determined that improvement in infrastructure development would lead to an improvement in service delivery ((β 2 =0.400; P=0.003). Further the study determined that an improvement in custom clearance process would lead to an improvement of service delivery ((β 3 =0.361; P.=0.000). Finally the study found out that an improvement of staff competence would significantly lead to an improvement of service delivery at the port of Mombasa (β 4 =0.372; P=0.027). The researcher concluded that there is need to evaluate other determinants which contribute to successful service delivery at Kenya Ports Authority. The study also concluded that infrastructure development plays a significant role and was the most important factor that ought to be considered by organization at Mombasa port in order to enhance service delivery. This was followed by staff competency then information system while customs clearance was the least. The study recommends that organization should continue investing more in infrastructure development to enhance efficiency, through automation to minimize human conduct so as to avoid bureaucratic procedures that hampers and slows down clearance processes. The study further recommends training of personnel to improve on efficiency in service delivery at the port.