Maritime Transport Research最新文献

The study at hand elaborates on potential barriers, prerequisites and optimization potentials for the automation of the twistlock handling process in container terminals. A case analysis enlightens latest automation developments of this essential task in container transport. Eight experts from different organizations in maritime logistics and seaport operations were interviewed in a qualitative multiple-case research design. The interviews were evaluated by qualitative-quantitative content analysis with MAXQDA software.

Automated twistlock handling systems are hardly implemented, although they represent the missing link between other container handling technology in the automated container transport. The study reveals that most implementation barriers consist of technological issues, followed by economic and strategic barriers. The study identifies implementation strategies and their key success and shows that safety improvements and cost reductions are major benefits of this automation. An innovation framework for this field of automation is conceptualized as scientific contribution. Practical implications include recommendations for relevant stakeholders in container logistics.

This paper analyses the marine accident reports published by the USA National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) between June 1975 and September 2017, in order to ascertain the exact influence of the crew and/or other people involved (pilots, company, etc.) on the cause of the incident and to find out the types of errors made by them. Additionally, the mistakes and those involved are analysed together to verify the correct implementation of international regulations concerning seafarers. The results suggest that crew error is relatively uncommon in cargo and passenger fleets. This points to the effectiveness of the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW convention). However, taking into consideration the high percentage of human error due to failure in communication and misjudgements during navigation in pilot waters, it may be deduced that the coordination among those on the bridge may be improved. On the other hand, crew error on board tugs exceeds 50%. This increase seems to be due to the difficulties of navigation in narrow waterways.

We examine for the existence of threshold relationships in the commodity price – charter rate nexus. Using the first lag of the commodity price change as the threshold variable, we find that in the case of large drops in commodity prices, the magnitude of the relationship can strongly change. In such cases, the impact is more passed on to freight rates than under normal conditions, while the prevalence of oil prices becomes less significant. Furthermore, in such occurrences, the relationship of freight rates with their lags is statistically significant suggesting that the shock is maintained in the system for longer. Intuitively, the empirical findings suggest that as commodity prices fall sharply, the freight rate needs to adjust more dynamically to such changes in order to maintain a more or less constant ratio of the transport cost to the end price of the commodity. Finally, the results are also supportive of the existence of a lead-lag relationship between commodity prices and charter rates, in accordance with the literature.

The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region has a need to develop its freight transport network to achieve its development objectives, and short-sea shipping (SSS) has been suggested as a way of achieving some of these objectives. The SADC region however requires impetus in terms of strategy and policy to develop SSS. This paper explores the stated preferences of shipowners and operators (maritime carriers) towards SSS in the SADC Region. It reports on a stated intentions survey conducted with 30 maritime carriers in SADC, which is then analysed using the ordered logit model. The relative influence of the following factors on the preference towards SSS is investigated: volumes of dedicated freight, income per unit cargo carried, percentage discount in port dues, percentage discount in terminal handling charges and ship registration provisions. The results reveal that ship registration provisions and terminal handling charges are the two major factors to address in order to develop SSS in SADC. The adoption of a regional maritime cabotage system is recommended as a strategy increase the take up of SSS by maritime carriers. The results can now inform policy and strategy to develop maritime transport in SADC.