Inland waterways transport service: development strategies and evaluation models

Abstract

Inland waterways transport is one part of the general transport system. This system includes rivers, lakes and canals, which often are connected to the sea and seaports. The most problematic task of the increasing sector of services is ensuring the quality of services. High and exclusive quality of services is a way to attract new clients and make them loyal to the company for a long time. So, the object of the research is a service of the inland waterways transport. More important strategies of the inland waterways transport development are discussed by characterizing prerequisites of their evaluation models. Main methods such as scientific literature analysis, comparative analysis of service evaluation, and synthesis were used in the research. The methodological principle is constructivism. It orients companies that providing the inland waterways transport service to combine their marketing visions with the constructs of potential clients’ mentalities and their needs by creating the common construct of service marketing regarding relationships between science and practice. The results of the research can be applied in the marketing processes of the inland waterways transport service.