Analysis of river passenger tranportation between the municipalities of Sitionuevo and Sabanagrande: a case study on the Magdalena river

Abstract

River passenger transport between the municipalities of Sitionuevo (Department of Magdalena) and Sabanagrande (Department of Atlántico), in Colombia, has been carried out for more than 50 years by the Cooperativa de Transporte Fluvial y Terrestre de Sitionuevo (Cootransflusi). A fundamental problem is maintaining the equilibrium point of passengers in the face of strong competition from land transport. The objective of the research was to analyze the movement of passengers, characterizing the current situation of the transport model, to make a proposal for improvement. The methodology consisted in the analysis of the little existing information on passenger movement, specifically for the year 2021, and from a simple linear regression, determine the passenger forecast, comparing it with the data of the first two quarters of the year 2022. To evaluate service levels, a qualitative survey of analytical origin was conducted with 117 participants. The viability of the company and the need to strengthen the tasks of marketing and quality in the service were concluded. Deficiencies were found in the maintenance of the boats and lack of function manuals. With the SWOT tool, strategic proposals were made in order to plan achievable improvement objectives.