A DSS approach with Fuzzy AHP to facilitate international multimodal transportation network

Abstract

International multimodal transport corridors connect one or more adjoining countries for delivering cargos with assurance of delivery reliability while minimizing transit time and costs. Since the economic standards of the countries in a particular international corridor vary from country to country, this can affect the overall performance of the routes due to the lack of interconnections, interoperability and legal framework while delivering cargos. The facilitation of a particular international route largely depends upon the decisions of commercial players who generally select an optimal multimodal transport route with respect to economic principles. Thus, it is important for the policy makers associated with an international route to understand what commercial players want and what kinds of barriers commercial players are facing. In this regard, it is highly justified to utilize analysis tools for systemically investigating the international routes in terms of interconnections, interoperability, legal framework, etc. However, the required data for the analysis is not only vast but also not easily obtained. Considering the complexity of logistics systems and the huge volume of data involved in international routes, this study proposes a decision-aid tool within a decision support system (DSS) using Fuzzy-AHP for the systemic analysis. This can assist countries to develop strategic policy decision making for the facilitation of international intermodal transport routes linking different countries.