The Impact of an Environmental Way of Customer’s Thinking on a Range of Choice from Transport Routes in Maritime Transport

Abstract

The paper deals with the impact that an environmental way of thinking has on shipping and transport company customers regarding their preferences in choosing a transport route. Nowadays, maritime transport plays a very important role mainly in transoceanic container transport. It also deals with the statistics focused on container shipping, especially between North America and Europe. These statistics contribute to a general description of the development of container shipping on the route that is applicated in this case study. The significant impact of this kind of transport also reflects the estimation of the future development of container transport on the selected transport route. In this view, the least square method is used in this paper. This method can present the trend of development according to statistics. Thanks to these materials, this paper estimates a slight increase of the number of containers transported between North America and Europe in the near future. This increase will have a certain effect on the environment. Thus, as part of their business policy of sustainability and environment protection, customers will prefer a mode of transport and transport routes featuring a smaller effect on the environment in the future. The relevance of such a change in preferences in planning transport routes for the customer is reflected in the case study presented in this paper. So, one part of this paper is also dedicated to information about the impact of maritime transport on the environment. This part also explains the impact according to different studies that have been published in the last few years. The main contribution of this paper is also to point out the importance of this factor for the preferences of customers via the multi-criteria decision method. Using a multi-criteria decision method, it outlines how the factor of the impact on the environment can significantly change the offer made by a transport or shipping company, and thus how it represents a key element of whether the customer would prefer the given offer or focus on a competitor’s offer.