Dar es Salaam seaport serving the Tanzania hinterland and other seven landlocked countries in East and Central Africa, The rapid economic growth of the hinterlands resulted to the increasing demand for overseas products from their country’s residents, this create congestion at Dar es Salaam seaport. Due to this, the connection for the movement of commodities from seaport to its hinterland has noticeably very slow. A qualitative research methodology technique is used in this article to explore the status, challenges and strategies of Dar es Salaam seaport-hinterland connectivity. The findings reveal that even though Dar es Salaam seaport is linked to the hinterland through both railway and road transport, but is hugely dependent on road transport. Regular tariffs increase for imports, insufficient number of trains and wagons connecting Dar es Salaam seaport, poor qualities of roads and railway infrastructures, congestion at the roads and the absence of new freight station are the main existing challenges in which significantly affect the smoothness of Dar es Salaam seaport-hinterland connectivity. Furthermore, the article proposes various enhancing strategies to combat named challenges. These strategies will be crucial to the government in decision making on how to develop and advancing Dar es Salaam seaport-hinterland connectivity.

Many countries rely heavily on seaports to promote their well-being and economy. Unreliability of seaport services can considerably impact cargo owners, seaport customers and shipping lines resulting to their dissatisfaction. This study aimed to evaluate service quality of Tanzanian seaports considering Dar es Salaam seaport as a study area. The study discovered the negative gap on the service quality after evaluating seaport user’s perceptions and expectations of delivered seaport services, meanwhile the service quality of Dar es Salaam seaport is poor. Opinions of seaport user’s concerning seaport service quality were computed based on the SERVQUAL model which developed by Parasuraman by considering the essential measurements of Tangibility, Empathy, Reliability, Assurance and Responsiveness. Senior administrators and managers employed in numerous shipping lines in Tanzania were interviewed to check the model validity, then 314 members of Tanzania shipping and logistics associations were engaged in a study survey. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was applied to validate the seaport service quality measurements and to observe their association with satisfaction of seaport customers using Amos Graphics software version 26. It found that seaport service quality is a five-measure construct; responsiveness was significantly influence customer satisfaction while empathy and assurance could insignificantly influence customer satisfaction. Reliability was found significantly to cause customer dissatisfaction and tangibility was insignificantly to cause customer dissatisfaction. Academically, this research donates to management practice as seaport administrators, managers and executives can utilize the seaport service quality measurements to evaluate their customer’s satisfaction and defending for seaport service quality investments as a relational marketing strategy.

The operations efficiency of Southern and Eastern Africa seaports was evaluated using DEA window analysis covering the period of ten years (2010-2019). The operations efficiency among the selected seaports from South and East African countries were compared and evaluated. The container throughput (TEUs), the available number of cranes, the quay length, the number of berths obtainable to hold up ships and total terminal area have been used as variables for input and output. The findings were; East African seaports have a lower container throughput volume (TEUs) and are smaller seaports size compared to South African seaports, but these East Africa seaports in general are more efficient than South African seaports. However, Durban seaport specifically in South Africa has been found to be the most efficient seaport among the six selected seaports from both regions (South and East African seaports). Moreover, the findings revealed that the least efficient seaport for the selected region over ten years is Walvis Bay seaport in South Africa. In this regard, policy maker should embrace the private and public investments as financial alternative sources. The timely, investment in port promotes a culture to modernise seaports so as to cope with the technological changes in maritime transport and improves seaport competitiveness and quality of services. The finding will be important in considering the selection of the future development strategies to be implemented by the seaports which are involved in this study.

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