Introduction

The idea of establishing a taxi service for UTech students came about through our own

personal experiences as well as from hearing other students complain about the strains of

getting home from the campus especially at nights. Students have always had to rely on

hackney taxis to get to and from school for years now. We have also noticed that there

are no public means of transport to some areas surrounding the University of Technology.

Exodus Taxi Service has taken the initiative to offer a reliable, safe and affordable taxi

service to commuting students and staff of the University of Technology. Our office will

be located at the Student Activity Centre (The Barn) where it will be easily accessed by

students. Our slogan is “We go where others won’t”.

Exodus

“We go where others won’t”

Objectives

1. We would like to find out the number of students who actually reside or board in

areas that we like to offer service.

2. We would also like to ascertain the amount of money students spend on

transportation to and from school.

3. How willing students will be to support the taxi service.

4. How much students would be willing to pay for the service.

5. If the venture will be profitable.

Population and sample

The questionnaires were administered to students from all seven faculties of the

University of Technology so that an even distribution of responses could be ascertained.

This research was especially geared to students who do not live on campus and who do

not own motor vehicles. Students were asked questions to get this information before

questionnaires were issued to them. We chose stratified samples of students from each

faculty so that we could get an idea of how feasible our business idea is.
Methodology

There are five partners in the business and we each took questionnaires to the various

faculties and students were given the questionnaires face to face to fill out.

It was observed that the numerous taxi services which operate in the area were very late

in making pick up and this is coupled with high prices. We made calls to numerous taxi

services to get a feel of how they operated business and found that they are lacking in

proper customer service skills. We also observed that the regular route taxis are reluctant

to turn off their routes and charge exorbitant prices to carry people to their desired

destinations. Observing that the student union has a similar service called the love bus,

we asked for pointers to help with our service. The main advice was to stick to maintain

good customer relations with students and honor our word as it relates to our services.
Questionnaire

The questionnaire was designed using a mixture of open-ended and closed-ended

questions. The questions were straight to the point, short and simple. This made it easier

for the respondents to complete the questionnaires which were administered to them.

Most of the questions were closed-ended; however open-ended questions were used for

example where persons to state the area in which they live and to give an estimate on

their weekly taxi fare.

The wording of the questions was simply and straightforward. No personal questions

were included in the questionnaire. Questions relating to cost were incorporated at the

end of the questionnaire.

Findings

Thirty five (35) questionnaires were administered on the University of Technology,

Jamaica (UTECH) campus which will be used to represent the UTECH population. The

findings of each question are illustrated below using bar graph and pie charts.

Questions

1. Are you a full time student at UTECH? Yes No

As indicated by the bar chart above, 100% of the population are full-time students at

UTECH.
 2. Do you live on campus? Yes No

100% of all the persons surveyed do not live on campus.

3. If No, where do you live? ______________________________________
The pie chart above shows as a percentage, the various areas in which the population

sample resides. This questions was incorarated in the questionnaire to give an idea of

where our services will be required.

 4. Do you own a motor vehicle? Yes No

From the surveyed conducted it was found that 3% of the sample population own motor

vehicle and 97% do not. This information will give an indication as to the percentage of

the population who will require our service.

 5. If NO, what are your means of traveling to and from UTECH?

Walk

Public transportation

Friend/ Family

43% of the population walks to and from the UTECH campus, 40% commutes via public

transportation and 17% travel by means of family or friends.

 6. Are you afraid of traveling to and from school at nights? Yes No

77% of the population sample is afraid to travel to and from school during the nights,

23% indicated that they are not.

 7. If Yes, would a taxi service made available to you at an affordable cost and based

on campus make you feel safer to travel to and from school at nights? Yes

No

74% of the population indicated that a taxi service made available would make them feel safer to

and from school at nights, 9% said it would not make them feer safer and 17% did not answer the

question.
8. When your classes finish in the nights, how do you normally get home?

Walk

Public transportation

Friend/ Family
From the survey conduted the data gathered indicates that 40% of the population walks

home from school in the nights, 51% gets home via public trasportation and 9% by

family or friends.

9. How much do you spend weekly on taxi fare? $___________________

Data collected from this question would be useful when determining a pricing strategic.

The question relates only to the population sample that travels via public transportation.

The data collected indicates that the weekly rates for public transportation range from

$520.00 to $3,000.00.
10. How much would you be willing to pay for a taxi that plies the route of your

community?

$ 80 - $ 100

$ 100 - $ 150

$ 150 - $ 200
From the survey conducted 71% of the population said the would be willing to pay $80-

$100 for the service, 17% will be willing to pay $100-$150, no one in the sample is

willing to $150-$200 for the service and 12% did not answer this question.

11. As there are currently no taxis that are assigned to communities around UTECH

where students reside; do you think such services should be offered? Yes

No

As shown in the bar chart above, 91% of the population thinks a taxi service to plie the

communites around UTECH where students reside should be offered while 9% does not think

so.
12. If a taxi service was established to transport students who live in close

proximity to UTECH; would you utilize such service? Yes

No
89% of the population surveyed indicated that they would utilize such a service if it was

implimented, while 11% indicated that they would not.

From the survey conducted we have found that the idea is a feasible one as 91% of the target

population (UTECH students), thinks the service should be offered and would utilize the

service if it is offered.

Product Characteristics

Exodus taxi service will be operating out of an office located at the student activity centre
(Barn). We are starting with five cars, drivers with hackney licenses on their cars will be
contracted on a school year basis, that is, from September to May each year. Travel
tickets will be printed and sold to customers to be used as travel passes. There will be a
day rate and a night rate with different rates for staff and students. The routes plied will
be from UTech campus to the various destinations and from various destinations to the
UTech campus.
The waiting time for each pick up will be considerably less as the cars will be parked on
the campus. We will also be offering the lowest price to students.
Our added services will include charters to areas outside of Kingston with reservations.
Market Analysis

The target market for this service is the entire UTech population from staff to students.

The taxi service aimed providing a readily available taxi service that will be at the

disposal of the entire population wishing to procure the service. The university’s

population is ideal for the conducting a profitable business. By providing a service solely

for the campus, this eliminates the need for utilizing the service of existing taxi

companies that operate in close proximity to the campus. Students and staff alike will feel

more comfortable with using a taxi service that is associated with the university, the

university is already an established brand, and therefore the operating of a taxi service

which is based on the campus gives it an advantage.

Threats that may pose a risk to the business include the failure of the university to

approve or grant permission for conducting the business on the university campus. Also if

the customers become dissatisfied with the service and discontinue using it then the

business becomes null and thus will have to cease operations.

Sales Analysis

We are proposing seventy five trip per day to generate a monthly gross income of $

380,000.00 per month.

Our Expenses will include:

Rent 25,000.00

Light 15,000.00

Salaries to drivers 150,000.00

Saving 50,000.00

Stationary and Tickets 25,000.00

This will give us a net profit of $115,000.

We are anticipating increases in the number of trips to the various destinations and also

an increase in our additional services as the business name becomes more popular.
Customer Analysis

Our customers will consist of mainly students but also staff as well at the university of

technology. There are a variety of age groups on campus and are will to offer our service

to any student or staff who needs it. Since our main targets are students it is necessary to

have low prices because most students do have jobs. We are just looking to offer

efficient affordable service.

 Promotion and Advertising

The various modes utilized for promoting and advertising our service can be fully utilized

through implementation of strategic ideas geared at obtaining a massive fan base which is

good for the business.

In its initial it will be costly, but in the long term benefits will be rewarding. We are

working towards developing an excellent reputation for the business which in return will

give us a large customer base. Nonetheless, word of mouth advertisement is very

powerful and is not ruled out as an option because every day we socialize and even

through mere informed persons can inform others until eventually almost everyone in the

university becomes aware by socializing.

We intend to reach students through means of advertising the launch of the service which

will be in the form a social gathering held in the sculpture park. This is an effective way

of advertising and promoting the service as the Sculpture Park is a central location which

normally has a heavy traffic of students daily, hence this form of promoting and

advertising the business is expected to very successful. Also, we will be making a lot of

attractions available so that the entire student population can be a part of the schedule

activities. This is an effective and efficient way of sensitizing the population. Persons will

have an interest in finding out what is going on and their curiosity will lead them to check

out what our promotion team is offering.

Another method of advertising that we will utilize is by posting flyers on the notice

boards of the different schools in the campus. Flyers are an effective way of attracting
persons to become aware of the existence of the product. In other words they will feel as

if they are familiar with the service from the onset.

Another way of spreading the word about the business is by advertising it on the

homepage of the university’s website. This method of promoting the business enables

everyone to become aware of existence because every students enrolled in the university

have to log on to its website in order to access their information thus they have to come

across the advertisement of the taxi service. We are also looking advertise our services

on popular social networks such as facebook and twitter as these sites are frequently used

by most if not all students.

We will also have team member t-shirts; printed on them will be the information of our

business ‘Exodus’ the information on the shirt will state; our business name, where we

are located, opening hours of the office, telephone number and the route covered.

We will have promotion where students who refer three other students to our business

will get a free ride for the week. Contest, where students who use our service for two

weeks will be entered in a draw, where the prize will be a DVD, or a iron, a microwave.

Students who use our service for two week and more a 200 phone card will be sent to

their phone for that month.

 Pricing Strategy

Our core pricing strategy is the market penetration pricing where we will offer a lower
prices than our competitors. Currently ticket purchases of six and above will attract a 5 %
discount.
Tickets
Day Rates for students $100
Night Rates “ $200
Day Rates for Staff $150
Night Rates “ $ 250
 Competition

Currently there are several hackney carriages that operate in the vicinity. The market

however, is not too concentrated and this makes it less difficult for the proposed taxi

service to be implemented. The existence of the competition is not expected to affect our

business significantly. The establishment of Exodus Taxi service will be more convenient

for the population of UTech. This is so because unlike the existing taxi services, we plan

to have a reduced waiting time for persons wishing to use the service. This will give us an

edge over the competition because they will not have to wait and become frustrated.

Also, the other companies sometimes do not have any vehicles available for periods up to

an hour, which means that the customers have to wait lengthy periods for an available

taxi. We are aware of this problem and will ensure that this does not occur under our

management.

Another advantage that we will possess is the provision of telephone lines that support all

networks that our customers may have an existing account with. This issue has become

an immense one as the rates for calling a different network is incredibly high and the

customers most times will not call because they do not wish to pay extra for calling

another network. This will definitely encourage business and will be an edge over other

competitors in the business because they do not have such systems in place.

The biggest advantage that we will have however is the price that we are proposing. We

intend to operate at a lower cost. Currently most persons that have used the service of

existing taxi service have expressed that the cost is too high and as such they would be

willing to pay less while still receiving quality service. From the survey conducted and

also by means of face to face interaction with some of the respondents, they have
disclosed that they would prefer to utilize the service being proposed. Thus, based solely

and the respondents, the proposed business seems to be a feasible one to pursue.
 Conclusion

The Exodus Taxi Service has proven to be a feasible venture with 89 percent of the
selected stratified sample being interested in the idea and willing to utilize the service.
We found that a number of students reside in areas that we are intending to offer or
services and are willing to utilize it. They do not own cars and are forced to pay out large
sums to get to and from school safely in the days and nights. Security is a very big issue
for students who live in the areas surrounding the university, so students will benefit from
the security of having a ride home. Affordability is one of the advantages that we will
have over our competitors. As this service will be meant for mainly students; it is
imperative that we offer affordable rates. The venture has also proven to be a profitable
one, the profit will be somewhat small in the beginning but as the business become
known and grows, we expect to see a much better turn around from the projected profit.
 UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY,
JAMAICA

SEMESTER 1 ELECTIVE
ENTRPRENEURSHIP

FEASIBILITY STUDY

COURSE: Bsc. QUANTITY SURVEYING

NAME: ROCHELLE HENRY ID #: 0702664

EMILETHA MCCOY ID #: 0600780

KADIAN STONER ID#:0703441

KIRKIAN KELLY ID #: 0904351

MICHELLE BROWN ID #: 09070464

DATE: October 20, 2010

Tutor: Mrs. Robinson