Inclusiveness and Sustainability of Road Transport and Logistics Services in Ethiopia

This study employs a convergent mixed-methods approach to evaluate the quality, equity, and inclusiveness of Road Transport and Logistics Services (RTLS) in southern Ethiopia, with explicit alignment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Using the SERVQUAL framework, quantitative data from 379 households were analyzed through ordinal logistic regression, complemented by qualitative interviews with transport stakeholders to capture systemic and spatial dimensions of service delivery. The findings reveal persistently low levels of user satisfaction across all service quality dimensions, with reliability, assurance, and tangibility emerging as the most influential predictors. Significant disparities are observed across income groups, gender, education levels, and spatial location, particularly disadvantaging rural and peri-urban kebeles. These inequities indicate that current RTLS provision risks reinforcing social and territorial inequalities rather than promoting inclusive mobility. From a sustainability perspective, the results demonstrate that infrastructure expansion alone is insufficient to achieve equitable transport outcomes without parallel improvements in service reliability, institutional trust, and responsiveness. The study contributes empirical evidence linking transport service quality to SDG 9 (resilient infrastructure), SDG 10 (reduced inequalities), and SDG 11 (inclusive and sustainable communities), and underscores the need for place-based, people-centered transport planning to advance inclusive and sustainable development in emerging regions.