Empirical evaluation of the container terminal service attributes; Sri Lankan perspective

The Port of Colombo with its geographical advantage and state of the art infrastructure and superstructure is poised to become a major hub port in South Asia. However, competitors exist with India and other countries in the region also being interested in developing their own ports to hub status, and therefore becoming a potential external threat to the port of Colombo. A path for the port operators and thus the Port to increasing competitiveness is to place greater emphasis on the service attributes provided to customers. This paper analyzes the importance of key service attributes of a container terminal to identify their contribution to competitive performance. Key service attributes were identified through a review of the literature and evaluated through a survey based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Interview based survey questionnaires were distributed among ten experienced professionals in the container operations industry. Collected data was analyzed through pair-wise comparison and the identified attributes were evaluated. The study identified the similarities in both perceptions of terminal operators and container operators selecting the most important service attributes, while the weight assigned to each attribute varies. Reliability of the agreed vessel sailing time, Loading and discharging efficiency, Customs declaration efficiency, Terminal operations and related services, and Reliability and accuracy of the operating plan are the five service attributes with the highest importance.