An evaluation of ocean container carrier selection criteria: an Indian shipper's perspective

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assist ocean container carriers in devising effective marketing strategies to attract and retain Indian shippers by letting them understand the list of criteria Indian shippers use in the carrier selection decisions and also the amount of importance they assign to each criterion during such decisions.Design/methodology/approachTo explore the criteria, review of transportation literature, customer satisfaction survey questionnaires of container carriers and SERVQUAL battery was undertaken. Telephonic interviews and focus group interview were also conducted for this purpose. In order to evaluate the criteria, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used. In the AHP, the pairwise comparisons were carried out by another focus group with the help of a questionnaire. For AHP calculations, the Expert Choice 11.5 software was used.FindingsIndian shippers use 45 criteria in the container carrier selection process and out of these, low freight is ranked as the most important criterion and pricing flexibility is the second most important one. In the list, these are the only two criteria found to be with more than 10 per cent importance. The least importance is given to five criteria: gifts and compliments, online booking, physical facilities, professional appearance and trade announcements which are weighed with 0.10 per cent importance. The paper has explored and added several new carrier selection criteria to the existing transportation literature.Practical implicationsThe paper enables container carriers to understand various criteria Indian shippers use in the container carrier selection decisions along with their relative importance in such decisions. It also helps container carriers to decide which criterion is to be given priority and which not while devising their marketing strategies for Indian market. This decision is vital to maximize shippers' satisfaction.Originality/valueThe paper is the first ever carrier selection study undertaken in India and is expected to open up enormous scope for future research.

Factors Influencing Selection of Container Shipping Lines in Pakistan – A Logistics Perspective

“…Joo et al (2017) developed a framework for benchmarking freight rates and identified the causes of different shipping cost for shippers and their transport outsourcing strategies. Kannan et al (2011) studied the factors governing the selection criterion for carriers from the Indian market. Authors identified first and foremost "low freight" with the following of "pricing flexibility" is the second ranked one.…”

“…For example, Setamanit and Pipatwattana (2015) emphasized that freight carrier selection criteria are very vital to deliver best services to the customer in Thailand. Similarly, Kannan et al (2011) have examined and classified the significant criteria for shipping carrier selection in Indian perspective, and Shen et al (2015) studied the factors governing the selection criterion for carriers in the Chinese market. This research is important concerning rules regulations, environmental policies, and economic trends explicitly in Pakistan, hence it is of high significance that we understand the selection criteria of shipping lines locally in Pakistan as well and how shipping lines can serve their customers competently.…”

Competitiveness of the Liner Operators: Methodological Issues and Implications

“…A number of studies have identified service quality as the important factor observed by the transport service buyers when buying transport services from the carriers [22,28,37].…”

“…Reliability in delivery was identified as the important by the shippers when making choice of ocean carrier [12,15,35,36]. Kannan, Bose and Kannan [37] applied the AHP to evaluate the ocean container carriers' selection criteria and found that low freight was ranked as the most important selection criteria by the shippers.…”

“…A number of researchers have used AHP to analyse the important factors affecting the choice of carrier [26,27,37,43], the authors have employed AHP to reduce carrier selection criteria in major factors. Pairwise comparisons of the 15 factors mentioned in Table 2 were conducted under the AHP.…”