CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Globally it’s estimated that 1.2million people die and between 20 and 50million others are injured and disabled annually through road accidents (WHO 2005).This constitutes to about 2.1% of all the deaths reported globally. Despite the fact that Africa has low level of motivation, it still accounts for higher percentage of global death with Sub Sahara Africa reporting between 82000 and 200000 deaths per year from road accident.
In Kenya, public service vehicle (PSVs) plays an important role in meeting their transport need of citizens and in the economy. They are responsible for ferrying 12M commuters to and from work every day. The sector contributes Kshs 41billion to Kenya’s economy annually which amounts to 4.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).However, the road safety situation has been a major problem. Its estimated at 3000 persons and tens of thousands of injuries occur on these roads every year(ibid).The cost of such roads on the economy is estimated to be ksh 14billion per year(Republic Of Kenya 2005).The PSVs have been accused of over speeding, reckless and careless driving and driving unroad-worthy vehicles among others(Khayes 2004).The problem has not been due to lack of road safety regulation but their poor enforcement (Odero et al 2003,Chitore and kibua 2004).There is a traffic Act which provide legislature framework to guide the standards required to ensure safety on Kenyan roads(Law of Kenya, chapters 403,404,405 and 406).
However, there has been a lack of strong political will, corruption concern and priority to address the problem of road accidents. The year 2004 turned to be year of ‘change’ in public sector (PSVs) due to implementation of strict road safety regulation for public transport. The regulation were gazette by the government in October 2003 and came into force on 1st February 2004(RUK 2003a;RUK 2003b).The aim was to improve the safety of commuters through ;seat belt in all vehicles, employment of drivers and conductors on permanent basis, compulsory uniform wearing of uniforms and budges by all p.s.v's’ drivers and conductors ,controlling the carrying capacity of all p.s.v .compulsory retesting of all p.s.v drivers after every 2years, every driver prominent displaying his/her passport. Among other regulations, the requirement was compulsory fitting of speed governor in all PSVs and commercial vehicles whose weight exceeds 3048kg.Inorder to limit the speed.
The Matatu Owners Association (MOWA) officials argued that regulation had detrimental effect on Public Transport industry by reducing their earnings. Although the implementation was received mix reactions from P.S.V operators and users, They appear to have had significant implication on the operation of P.S.Vs.The speed governors ensured that the vehicles which previously drove at life threatening speed did not go beyond the distance and number of trips by each p.s.v vehicle. The speed governor efficiency, have been assessed, yet they have far-reaching implications to the public transport industry.
Speed governors have been in use in Kenya since 2003 with the introduction of famously known ‘michuki law’. Since then many loopholes have been surfaced relating to the analogue speed governor which could have been tampered with by the drivers. This led to introduction of digital speed limiters which cannot be tampered with altered. The digital speed limiters are efficient since they have USB slot which can be connected to a computing device and shows the speed information of the vehicle for the last 72hours.These study will now look how the new digital speed limiters have been applied and how they have impacted on the service delivery in public transport industry.

Statement of problem
Companies involved in transportation mostly aim at satisfying their customers, to increase their likely hood, to continually use their services. Efficiency in service delivery stems from the ability of the company to not only retain customers but to maximize profit as well. This can be achieved by reducing the cost of fuel consumption proper maintenance of the vehicle.
Public service vehicle are popularly known for violating traffic rules one of them being over speeding. These have led to the introduction of speed limiters which are aimed at limiting the speed at which public vehicles travel.
The study will investigate how introduction of speed limiters or the extent to which the speed limiters have impacted on efficiency on public service vehicles. A lot of lives one lost in our roads due to over speeding thus giving rise to the need to install speed limiters. P.S.Vs is supposed to travel at a maximum of 80km/h.

DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The study will focus mainly Eldoret-Nakuru-Nairobi highway .There are SACCO’s operating on this route but the study will focus mainly on North rift service provider SACCO .We intend to collect from North rift service provider with the co-coordinating office in Nakuru from where the data will be collected.
The study will also be limited to public service vehicle operating on this route. The result will be generalized to cover all public service vehicles in Kenya since there is no though time to cover all the SACCOs due to wide geographical area. The result may not also reflect what goes on or is applied in developed and developing countries.

Objectives of the study

The main aim of this study is to investigate the extent of the use of speed limiters gadget on efficiency in the public service vehicle.

Specific objectives; I) To investigate the effect of speed limiters on customer satisfaction. ii) To investigate the effect of speed limiters on rate of accidents. iii) To evaluate the effect of speed limiters on firms’ operating cost.

Hypotheses of the study i) There is no significant effect of speed limiters on customer satisfaction. ii) There is no significant effect of speed limiters on rate of accidents. iii) There is no significant effect of speed limiters on firms’ costs.

Importance of the study

The study will be relevant to other PSV operation s services ,it seek to provide an insight on the impact of speed limiters in terms of the accident rate, effects on operating cost as well as the level of customer satisfaction (Knowles Canada 2008)
In addition this research will add to already existing knowledge on the efficiency…………………...The study will act as a reference tool for researchers who wish to further research………………….
Trends in accident rates will help the government to make informed as well as predict future of continued use of speed limiters.