Multimodal route selection for agriculture transport from Thailand to South China by multi-tier method

Abstract

At present, it is undeniable that cross-border transportation (CBT) is an essential criterion in developing the international trade economy. CBT will enable many business processes to result in a better economy and international trade with growth. Multimodal transportation is essential to international cross-border trade in the global economy, especially in the movement of goods, because it can help the increased effectiveness of foreign and domestic trade, the development of industrial relations, and the transportation of passengers and cargo. In the past, whether it is agricultural trade or industrial trade, policymakers and decision-makers have focused on making critical decisions based on aspects of cost, time, and risk. Due to increased competition, exploiting other related areas is necessary for the sustainability of the transport business. Therefore, this research operationalizes the benefit and opportunity dimensions of multimodal transport to increase organization efficiency in the transportation business development. However, multimodal transport has been impacted by the pandemic event, COVID-19. And the logistics service provider is directly affected. In order to reduce the number of infection cases, several governments have closed or limited their trade borders, causing disruptions in vehicle movements, labor shortages, and the preservation of physical distance in production facilities. Due to the pandemic event, several difficulties were found in multimodal transportation operations and are expected to impact worldwide international trade considerably. For example, the World Trade Organization (WTO) predicted that the COVID-19 crisis might cause a 13–32 percent drop in global trade in 2021. Therefore, this study will be presented in three stages. The first stage employs bibliometric analysis to define multimodal transport dimensions and criteria based on previous and current multimodal transportation literature studies. The second uses confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to verify the relationship between factors and multimodal transportation. The Fuzzy Best-Worst Method (FBWM) combined with Benefits, Opportunities, Costs, and Risks (BOCR) was used in the second stage of this research to prioritize the sub-criteria affecting the improvement and development of multimodal transport during the COVID-19 crisis from the perspective of a logistics service provider in Thailand. In the final stage, research proposed the Fuzzy Best-Worst Method to determine sub- criteria. In addition, fuzzy-TOPSIS was used to rank alternative multimodal transport routes from Thailand to South China. This method was employed to evaluate the decision-making process. More importantly, this method considers the decision makers’ risk appetite and the alternatives' preferences, decreasing the decision risk. As a result of the research, the researcher was able to identify essential sub-criteria during the epidemic crisis that was affected by the outbreak. Those sub-criteria can assist policymakers in developing policies to solve multimodal transportation difficulties during the epidemic crisis. In addition, it can help logistics service providers transporting agricultural goods from Thailand to southern China choose the appropriate route.