Port Performance Measurement from Perspective of Users

Abstract

Measurement of overall port performance need to consider expectations of customers and stakeholders. Existing methods with different sets of assumptions suffer from limitations and give different results. The paper suggests an assumptions free method of a single value of port performance measurement from users’ perspectives (PPM-UP) where dimension/scale scores are transformed to follow Normal distribution, facilitating meaningful arithmetic aggregation satisfying desirable properties. The method avoids disadvantages of existing methods and helps to assess overall performance of ports and in the relevant dimensions and compares ports across time and space using statistical tests. Quantification of responsiveness of the scale using longitudinal data helps to assess effectiveness of adopted action plans. The method also helps to find growth curve of PPM- PU of a port and can be applied for any number of dimensions or K-point items K= 2, 3, 4, 5, …….. The proposed method with wide application areas advances scholarly and helps port authorities to evaluate their performance from the port users’ point of view and take the necessary actions to improve it.