Strategic Location Considerations for Fuel Filling Stations along Thika Super Highway-Kenya

This research work was conducted along the Thika Superhighway in Kenya. The highway starts from Nairobi CBD and extends for about 40 Km to another major town called Thika. For the sake of objectivity, this research was conducted and traced the location of petrol stations beyond Thika town for a further 50km to another important nodal point called Makutano (Swahili for Junction) beyond which the roads become less busy. In total, the distance of interest along this busy road was approximately 90km. There were in total 25 petrol stations, among which 18 were located on the left hand side and 7 on the right hand side of the road as one travelled away from the CBD and this formed the target population for this research work. Due to this manageable target population, census on all the petrol stations was conducted. The basic data collection tool was a questionnaire which was self administered. out of the 25 questionnaires distributed, 23 were picked up well filled and hence used for data analysis, representing a success rate of 88%. The respondents were the station management personnel. The main strategic location factors of interest were availability and cost of land, customer convenience and lastly chance. After analysis of data, it came out clearly that considerations on customer convenience played the greatest role followed by cost and availability of land and lastly chance. This was in line with the expectations since given the facts that in Kenya motorists keep to the left, and that the Thika Superhighway has a wall barrier between the left and right roads. Presence of large scale plantations on some sections of the road also played a major role in determining location of the fuel stations by limiting their presence on their sides of the road. Chance was found to play a less significant role because most of the petrol stations have been established long after the highway was built.