ASSESSMENT OF THE QUALITY OF SERVICE PROVIDED BY THE UBER TRANSPORT APPLICATION: AN APPLICATION OF THE SERVQUAL SCALE

Objective: The study aims to evaluate the quality of service provided by the Uber transport application to users in the municipality of Caruaru, using the SERVQUAL Scale. Methodology/approach: This is an applied, quantitative and descriptive research, which used a questionnaire, based on the SERVQUAL scale, as a data collection instrument. 180 responses were collected from users of the Uber transport application in the city of Caruaru, through the Google Form platform. In the treatment and analysis of data, descriptive statistics were used. Originality/Relevance: The study evaluates the quality of a service that is inserted in a growing market called the Sharing Economy. Its relevance lies in the fact that it was possible to capture the expectations and perceptions of users about the Uber transport application, subsidizing the organization providing the service with information that could enable the improvement of its services in the search for satisfying the needs of its customers. Main Results: The results showed that the performance of the service provided was below the expectations of its users in all items evaluated and, consequently, in the five dimensions. Thus, an action plan was proposed with possible improvements for the critical items, that is, those that obtained the highest GAPs: T5 - accessibility for people with physical disabilities; E13 - discounts provided to users; R2 - cancellation of trips by drivers; E11 - priority given to people with physical disabilities, pregnant women and the elderly; and R3 - number of available drivers. Theoretical/methodological contributions: The study presents an application of the SERVQUAL scale, a model already consolidated in the literature, which was adapted to assess the quality of service provided by individual private transport applications.