Morelia Tanker Water Market and Business Customers
Description
The purpose of the study backed up through this dataset is to conduct a market analysis on the role of businesses in the performance of the private tanker water market of Morelia, Mexico. Specifically, this study examines the different supply chains that deliver tanker water to business premises to understand the role of businesses in the formation of informal water markets and the nature of competition between formal and informal supply chains that serve them. In all, it contributes to discussions on the operations and competition within informal markets (i.e., market structure, vendor organization, price setting, customer characteristics and profitability of private water tankers, which will help inform policies governing informal water markets in the supply and demand value chains. This study espoused a mixed method approach using both qualitative and quantitative techniques to collate data from a cross-section of PWT stakeholders (water source managers, tanker drivers and operators, business customers and regulators alike) in Morelia, Mexico. Combining both approaches provided an avenue to achieve a more robust and comprehensive meaning to the research findings. This is because the use of the two designs acts as a check and balance against bias and generalization of results. This also afforded the study to use and collect data through several collection methods to ensure enough depth and breadth of the information on supply chains and business customers in the private tanker water market. The study was conducted in the city of Morelia in Mexico. The city with 784,776 inhabitants was carefully chosen as a field site because of the intense market activity of water tankers and its manageable size. In Morelia, on average, about 200 tankers deliver water daily to households and businesses alike within an area of 78 km2.. Given the complexity of PWT markets, a multistage sampling approach was adopted for this study. The first process was made up of identifying and selecting the most relevant water sources from which water tankers source their water. The relative importance of each source, in terms of water sold to the market, was used as the basis in selecting the respective number of interviews at each water source. Study participants were recruited using the purposive and the snowballing techniques. Using this technique, all in all, 27 truck drivers were interviewed from all water sources using questionnaires designed to include core issues regarding total sales to businesses and frequency of supply and financial indicators. Drivers were interviewed during rides to deliver tanker water to business customers. Seven water source managers were also interviewed using semi-structured interviews. Interviews were mainly conducted at the water source but in an area devoid of any third-party interference such as respective offices. Also, using both qualitative in-depth guides and questionnaires, thirty business customers were interviewed.