Measuring port efficiency incorporating AIS data

Abstract

Port efficiency is an important issue in international trades and logistics, which has different meanings for various stakeholders. This thesis aims to have a clear understanding of port efficiency from different perspectives and measuring the port efficiency incorporating AIS data from ships' perspectives. The first part of this research reviews the existing studies on port efficiency analysis from both port's and users' perspectives. It has been found that the users' time in port is seldom considered, and there is a lack of balance between the interests of users and that of port in the port efficiency analysis. Without consider shipowners' interests, it is difficult to distinguish the efficient port from the congested port, as port efficiency is measured by how to use minimum inputs (yard area, number of cranes, employed labor, etc.) to produce the maximum outputs, such as throughput. With intense competition among ports and terminals, the users' interests and needs become increasingly important. Therefore, it is important to consider both interests of port and users in port efficiency analysis. The second part of this research extracts ships' berthing time in port from AIS data and examines the empirical relationship of berthing time with ship attribute, port attributes, including the scale efficiency score calculated by DEA methods. Firstly, the berthing time of all ship calls is extracted from AIS data. Secondly, port efficiency score is calculated by using DEA methods. Then, a regression method is applied to estimate the impact of port scale efficiency and other port and ship attributes on berthing time. The result shows that the rankings of port scale efficiency score and that of average berthing time are different. The attributes of port and ship can influence berthing time at different levels. This thesis provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of existing studies on port efficiency analysis, and a novel method to evaluate port efficiency incorporating AIS data from ships' perspective. The empirical results of this thesis can provide the basis for port authorities and policymakers to make a more appropriate method to evaluate port efficiency.