Door to door service by shipping lines : theory and practice

• Main Author: Ong, Xue Ling.
• Other Authors: Lam Siu Lee
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Maritime studies::Maritime management and business
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/16017
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This paper examines Singapore shippers’ expectations on door-to-door service attributes and compares these service attributes to container shipping lines’ understanding of these expectations to determine if a perceptual gap exists. This is done by means of a review of previous studies, personal interviews and survey questionnaires. The overall mean for each of the door-to-door service attributes were evaluated and comparison between the responses of the shippers and shipping lines were made. The result revealed that the most important service attributes for the shippers was “accurate documentation”, followed by “low damage or pilferage performance” and “low freight rate”. Three of the most important service attributes ranked by the container shipping lines based on their understanding of the shippers are “transit time reliability”, “good reputation” and “accurate documentation”. This research has also identified a relationship between the selection attributes for internationals transport and the industrial sectors. The results presented in this report could be useful to shipping practitioners in devising a successful transportation strategy.