Title: Study on analysing the criteria's for selection of shipping carriers in Chinese shipping market using analytical hierarchy process

Authors: Lixin Shen; K. Mathiyazhagan; Devika Kannan; Wang Ying

Addresses: Transportation Management College, Dalian Maritime University, 1 Linghai Road, Dalian, 116026, China ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, ITM University, Gurgaon, 122017, India ' Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark ' Transportation Management College, Dalian Maritime University, 1 Linghai Road, Dalian, 116026, China

Abstract: Globalisation has led to the increased export and import of goods worldwide. Due to this, the selection of the right mode of transportation for heavy (huge) goods items is a challenging task for industries. In this regard, maritime transport is the best way to send huge goods compared to other modes of transportations. The objective of this study is to investigate the essential criteria for shipping carrier and to rank them with the help of analytical hierarchy process (AHP) in the perspective of the Chinese shipping market. From the results, it is observed that the most important criteria are cargoes' damage degree when they are received (R2). It is acting as an important criteria and reliability for on-time delivery (R1) and the carrier's ability of multimodal transportation (C1) are the next priority criteria's for the selection of shipping carrier.

Keywords: shipping carriers; China; shipping markets; analytical hierarchy process; AHP; selection criteria; shipping carrier selection; shipping containers; cargo damage; reliability; on-time delivery; multimodal transport.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTL.2015.072685

International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics, 2015 Vol.7 No.6, pp.742 - 757

Received: 11 Jun 2014
Accepted: 02 Dec 2014

Published online: 24 Oct 2015 *

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