Choosing optimal bunkering ports for liner shipping companies: A hybrid Fuzzy-Delphi–TOPSIS approach

Ying Wang, Gi-Tae Yeo and Adolf K.Y. Ng

Transport Policy, 2014, vol. 35, issue C, 358-365

Abstract: With sustained high bunker prices, new methods for choosing optimal bunkering ports to save on total operating costs have appeared in research involving liner shipping companies. Generally speaking, the bunkering port selection problem is solved by utilizing ship planning software. However, this can only work optimally when ship arrivals can be forecasted rather accurately, and its primary limitation is that it ignores unforeseen circumstances in actual operations. There are as yet no fixed rules for bunkering port selection. To address this, the paper develops a benchmarking framework that evaluates bunkering ports’ performances with in regular liner routes in order to choose optimal ones. Bunkering port selection is typically a multi-criteria group decision problem, and in many practical situations, decision makers cannot form proper judgments using incomplete and uncertain information in an environment with exact and crisp values; thus, fuzzy numbers are proposed in this paper. A hybrid Fuzzy-Delphi–TOPSIS based methodology that divides the benchmarking into three stages is employed to support the entire framework. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis is performed. The proposed framework can enable decision makers to better understand the complex relationships of the relevant key performance factors and assist managers in comprehending the present strengths and weaknesses of their strategies.

Keywords: Bunkering port; Key performance factor (KPF); Liner shipping company; Fuzzy-Delphi–TOPSIS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X14000961
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:trapol:v:35:y:2014:i:c:p:358-365

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
https://shop.elsevie ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2014.04.009

Access Statistics for this article

Transport Policy is currently edited by Y. Hayashi

More articles in Transport Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().