PREFERENCE FOR LIGHT VEHICLES – A STUDY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO UDUMALPET HOUSEHOLDS

Marketing Management

International Conference on Research avenues in Social Science

Transport system plays a major role in the economic development and life style changes. Performance of household activities has a great say on the preference and dependence on light vehicles, despite increase in road usage, traffic congestion and accidents. Hence, household level study is of great relevance because presently irrespective of the type of family, each household owns more than one type of vehicle and sometimes even more than one vehicle in each type of vehicle. The study attempts to identify the order of preference for light vehicles, most influencing factor leading to the purchase of light vehicles, frequency of usage and its impact on environment. Primary data has been collected adopting structured questionnaire from a sample of 125 respondents. Analyses of the preference for light vehicles among households revealed that, brand, look/style and comfort influenced purchase of light vehicles. Motor cycle was the most preferred vehicle as the mean score was 4.74 in the 6 point scale. More than half of the households had more than one type of light vehicle. Motorcycle was the only light vehicle preferred to be owned in more than one number. Entire family members took part in the purchase decision for big car. Cash was the major mode of payment. Respondents preferred Hercules brand of Bicycle, TVS brand of Mopeds, TVS brand of Scooters, TVS brand of Motor cycle, Maruti Suzuki brand of small cars and Mahindra brand of big cars. White and black were the most preferred colours. Motor cycle and small car were the most frequently used light vehicle. Bicycle had the lowest cost of maintenance while big car had the highest maintenance cost. The R2 value indicates that, 42.2% of variance in cost of maintenance is explained by frequency of usage as the regression equation for cost of maintenance is 0.581+0.889 frequency of usage. Repair was the major problem for light vehicles. Most of the male and female respondents suffered from back pain due to the usage of light vehicles. Respondents highly preferred public transport system as it is cheaper. Purchase decision for light vehicles is significantly based on advertisements. Television was the best mode of advertisement for light vehicles. Majority of the respondents felt air pollution was the main environmental issue created by light vehicles like motorcycle, small car and scooters. Respondents gave higher level of preference for petrol(569). Big car(502) had the major impact on traffic congestion and were the major source of accidents. Frequency of usage, number of member in the family, sex, marital status, occupation, monthly income of family and degree of dependency had a great say on the ownership pattern of light vehicles for household usage.

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