Estimation of transport service quality using an ordinal priority model

Abstract

Service quality in any sector is determined by its users, so their input must be taken into account when evaluating services. This is true for freight transport. However, as transport service quality can only be evaluated after its use and the criteria considered by customers may differ from those deemed relevant by experts, the carrier selection process is very complex. This research was conducted to provide transport service users with a simple decision making mechanism for selecting the optimal freight carrier among multiple alternatives. The model utility was assessed by applying it to a real case and comprehensive sensitivity analysis was conducted to confirm its robustness.