Charles K. Kaira

Transportation Needs of the Rural Population in Developing Countries

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Acquisition and maintenance costs of bicycles and animal-carts

In transportation studies, ownership of a vehicle is normally related to the income of a household (Zahavi conducts an analysis of household income and ownership of motor vehicles for cities in different parts of the world (Zahavi, 1976).). Consequently, whenever a household is faced with the task of acquiring a vehicle, ability to pay in monetary terms is one of the major factors, that are taken into account. Ability to pay for a particular vehicle has three main components: namely acquisition, operation and maintenance costs. In this section the acquisition and maintenance costs of the bicycle and the animal-cart, respectively, are analysed. The data was obtained from the household questionnaire.

In the survey, data for 160 bicycles and 108 animal-carts was gathered. Analysis of the data revealed that 34.6 and 65.4 % of the bicycles were acquired by households when new and old respectively. Further, it was revealed that 96.3, 2.5 and 1.2 % of the bicycles were respectively bought on cash terms, paid for in installments and recieved as present from relatives. On the other hand, 97.5 % and 2.5 % of the animal-carts were acquired by households when new and old respectively. However, the percentages of the means of acquisition remained more or less at the same levels of 87.5, 9.5 and 3.0 % for cash terms. installment terms an, recieved as present respectively. A high number of animal-carts were acquired when new because they are bought per order from local craftsmen while bicycles, which are assembled in factories or imported, can be obtained new from almost all towns and second-hand from individuals. Table 2.10 shows prices of new bicycles and animal-carts for the years between 1976 and 1979 inclusive.

Acquisition costs for new bicycles and animal-carts in K.Sh.

Vehicle category	Year
	1976	1977	1978	1979
Bicycle	650-800	650-850	850-1,200	1,000-1300
Animal-cart	600-1,800	640-1,600	800-1,900	1,200-2,000

The high percentages for acquisition of vehicles on cash terms rather than on hire purchase terms is explained by the fact that subsistence farmers do not normally have access to hire purchase facilities and/or if such facilities are available, the farmers simply do not have the necessary securities required. Naturally, the only alternative is to buy the vehicle at the time the household can put together enough cash. Probably it is, also, the cash terms that explain the high ratio of purchase of second-hand bicycles to new ones since a second-hand one is likely to cost much less than a new one. Unfortunately, it was not possible to assess prices for second-hand bicycles as the price would depend on the condition of the bicycle in question.

The evidence that hard cash is the major constraint if a household wants to own a bicycle or an animal-cart is reflected in the answers given to the question "Why at this time ?". The following response emerged:

1. 80 % - "That is when the household obtained enough money to pay for the vehicle";
2. 10.5 % - "That is when the household realized the value of the vehicle as a general transporter in the household";
3. 6 % - "The household needed another vehicle to replace the old one or to help the existing one";
4. 3.5 % - "The vehicle was needed for business or fieldwork transport".

Since long life span and maximum utlization of a vehicle depend on a good maintenance program, it is whorthwhile to investigate the costs of maintaining a bicycle and an animal-cart in rural conditions. In most cases it is the ability to pay for this maintenance that determines whether a vehicle would have a good maintenance program or not during its life span. To a great extent, maintenance cost of any vehicle is related to tine rate of utilization and conditions such as carriageway surface, type, nature and amount of load carried, weather conditions, topography etc. under which a vehicle is used (Compare studies by Hide et al., 1975 and Nide, 1976 carried out in Kenya for motor vehicles.). However, due to constraints in obtaining data in the field and the great effort that would be required to analyse such an amount of data, maintenance costs investigated in this survey do not take the above mentioned factors into account. For convenience of analysis, maintenance cost is broken into two components:

1. spare parts cost;
2. repair or replacement (including greasing and oiling) charges.

The raw data for maintenance costs of 132 bicycles and 50 animal-carts was recorded on a schedule sheet for spare parts and repair charges. Thirty five and nineteen different items for respectively bicycles and animal-carts were mentioned by respondents as having been replaced and/or repaired.

Spare parts costs, repair and replacement charges and total maintenance costs were computed for each recorded item and their sums for all items under consideration in respect of the vehicle were calculated respectively. The mathematical formula is given as follows:

M_j = SUM over i(s_ic_i) + SUM over i(R_iH_i)

where
M_j is is total maintenance cost for vehicle j (i.e. bicycle, animal-cart);
s_i is quantity of item i (i.e. tyre, tube, etc.);
c_i is cost of item i;
R_i is number of times item i was replaced or repaired;
H_i is charge for replacing or repairing item i.

The three sums: 1) spare parts costs, 2) repair and replacement charges and 3) total maintenance costs were subjected to statistical analysis. The analysis and discussion are conveniently presented in two subsections:

1. maintenance costs for bicycles;
2. maintenance costs for animal-carts.

Maintenance costs for bicycles

The medians and quartiles (Spiegel, 1961, p.47) for total maintenance costs of bicycles classified according to age after the year of acquisition (Since it was difficult to know the precise year of manufacture for second-hand bicycles, the bicycles were grouped according to age after the year of acquisition. As only 35 % of the bicycles were acquired when new, this is only a rough estimate of ages of bicycles.) are shown in Figure 1 below. There are two tendencies evident:

1. the medians are smaller than the means because the distributions are skewed to the left (Willemsen, 1974, p.24);
2. a distribution of maintenance costs for all bicycles shows that 75 % of the bicycles were maintained under K. Sh. 287.50 per annum.

As the bicycles were of different ages, it was necessary to investigate whether maintenance cost is independent of the age of the bicycle. Table 1 is the contigency table. The null hypothesis examined is that the maintenance cost of a bicycle is independent of its age. In order to be able to use Chi 2 as the measure of the degree of relationship), the class intervals for maintenance costs were broadened (Lienert, 1973, p. 189). With a Chi (see Nie et al., 1975, p. 223.) value of only 13.3 the null hypothesis could not be rejected at the 0.10 level of significance. It is, therefore, suggested that maintenance cost does not seem to be related to age of a bicycle.

Figure 1: Maintenance costs for bicycles
Missing figure. Please write me an email, if you are interessted in this figure.

Table 1: Bicycles by total maintenance costs and age after year of acquisition
Missing table. Please write me an email, if you are interessted in this table.

The above conclusion is apparent when considering the items of spare parts that were replaced or repaired. Table 2 shows the frequency with which items were bought, repaired or replaced for bicycles surveyed.Further analysis showed that at least 76 % of the bicycles had tyres and/or tubes repaired or replaced and that tyres and tubes together, in at least 50 % of the cases, accounted for the items that contributed the highest to the total maintenance costs. Therefore, it is not surprising that maintenance cost is independent of age of a bicycle since tyres and tubes have the same life span for bicycles old or new, when used under similar conditions.

Table 2: Frequency of buying and replacing/repairing of items per annum for bicycles (Cell entries are number of bicycles that had an item repaired/replaced.)

r) Only repair or maintenance Work was done for these items.
B = Bought
R = Replaced/Repaired

Missing table. Please write me an email, if you are interessted in this table.