Assessing the Potential of “Mobility as a Service” in Passenger Maritime Transport

This article assesses the potential of Mobility as a Service in passenger maritime transport from the supply perspective by collecting and analyzing data provided by interviews to key experts in passenger transport from both industry and academia. “Mobility as a service” in passenger maritime transport (also in this article referred as “Maritime MaaS”) describes the integration of passenger maritime services with land mobility into a single mobility service delivered through a unique platform for planning, booking, ticketing, and payment. The scope of this article is to explore the potential interest of mobility service providers to develop a MaaS that has as a backbone coastal shipping at the Aegean Archipelagos, in Greece. The Maritime MaaS ecosystem with its key actors is identified, while the perceived challenges, opportunities, and benefits envisaged by the adaptation of this innovative concept from urban transport to the maritime sector are recorded. Computer-assisted interviews were performed at a panel of 17 experts representing different types of decision makers. Participants were selected according to their current industry position or their academic profile. A content analysis with the use of NVIVO was conducted, followed by a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis based on the experts’ input, in order to assess the MaaS business environment. Results indicate that the maritime transport sector is relatively ready to adopt MaaS from a technological readiness perspective, while land transport seems to be in a lower level of technological readiness. PAYG (pay as you go) MaaS business model is preferred than a “MaaS package” model by most stakeholders. Finally, main challenges toward MaaS implementation are the discrepancies in reliability of service among different transport modes and the ferry fleet operational flexibility ceilings that are imposed by legal framework for ferry routings in Greece.

A POLICY-MAKING FRAMEWORK FOR ENHANCING THE KAOHSIUNG PORT’S ECONOMIC RESILIENCE

This paper is a revised and expanded version of a paper entitled ‘Influential indicators for measuring Kaohsiung port resilience’ presented at the International Forum on Shipping, Port, and Airports (IFSPA 2013), Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, 3–5 June 2013. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method commonly used in the issue of decision making was performed in this study to propose a policy-making framework for enhancing the Kaohsiung port’s economic resilience. A three-level hierarchical structure with 19 attributes is proposed and tested. Results indicate that adjusting the shipping policy is perceived as the most critical strategic dimension to enhance container port resilience. This is followed by increasing incentives, adjusting port operational strategy and exploiting market opportunities. Overall, results show that the five most important strategies for enhancing international container ports’ resilience are training of international marketing personnel, economic deregulation of shipping market across the Taiwan-Strait; subsidising the throughput of containers transhipment, subsidising coastal shipping operations and the alteration of dedicated terminals for rent. This study contributes in proposing a policy-making framework to enhance the container port’s economic resilience, and this framework could also be generalised to other ports.

Pricing and Market Results of Greek Coastal System after Cabotage Privilege Removal (2002-2010): The Example of European and Global Aviation

The purpose of this article is to compare Greek coastal shipping and aviation industry immediately after their liberalization. It focuses mainly on fare configuration analysis of domestic and global aviation to compare the conclusions with Greek coastal market. This is an innovative approach as there has been no such research effort on this issue in the past. The importance of our analysis lies to a large extent in exploring the improvement or deterioration of passenger services for the two modes of transport following the lifting of cabotage privilege. It can be a yardstick for those researchers who want to know in advance what could happen in the first years of liberalization in a transport industry. The analysis results show that the institutional framework and the economic market conditions in two industries characterized by both similarities and differences. JEL classification numbers: R40, M21, L50. Keywords: Global and European Aviation, Greek coastal shipping, Market liberalization, Lifting of cabotage privilege, Fares, Passenger service.

AN IMPLEMENTATION PROPOSAL OF INNOVATIVE PRICING IN GREEK COASTAL SHIPPING

Greek coastal shipping is an industry which passed from the state regulatory interference to market forces. Its fare structure (tariff) was based on average (or total) cost and distance was the representative cost variable. As it is an industry facing strong economies of scale, average cost is higher than marginal cost. This means that companies equalizing prices to marginal cost, following Pareto–efficient allocation of resources, are driven to losses and are forced to seek other methods of efficient pricing policy. The purpose of this article is to examine the implementation of “innovative” pricing in Greek coastal shipping. “Innovative” pricing contains applicable measures in order to increase ticket prices in “peak” periods without affecting the level of quality, the number of passengers and the market share. The analysis results show that average fare will not necessarily raise. Ticket increases may be accompanied by quantitative discounts in periods of low demand. In these cases, “season tickets” can be applied.

Case Article—Coastal Shipping for Automobile Distribution

With growing concerns related to the environment, sustainable transportation has gained importance. For geographies with an ample coastline, coastal shipping offers a sustainable transportation option to move massive freight quantities. This paper presents a case that allows students to appreciate the role of coastal shipping in multimodal logistics planning. Furthermore, it gives students an opportunity to mathematically model transportation planning at a strategic and tactical level for automotive distribution. The students learn how to assess the financial viability of a mode shift from roadways to coastal shipping. The instructors can use this case for theoretical discussion on multimodal logistics and the application of mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) and heuristics as solution methods. Furthermore, the case presents an opportunity to demonstrate the improvement in solution quality with an MILP solver compared with heuristics.