Services at Swedish Dry Ports

Paper in proceeding, 2019

The purpose of the study is to investigate which services of Swedish dry ports have the largest positive influence on stakeholders’ criteria; in order to suggest a configuration of a dry port that brings the most benefits to the stakeholders. Multi-actor, Multi-Criteria Analysis method was used as a basis for the research; it allowed evaluation of different scenarios (sets of services available at dry ports) considering objectives and opinions of multiple stakeholders. Scenarios and criteria were identified by literature analysis. The findings show that the basic services of the studied dry ports were crucial for establishing operations; however, further advancement of service portfolio by adding value-added services (VAS) and customer-oriented services keeps bringing extra benefits to the stakeholders both from financial and environmental points of view. Majority of Swedish dry ports keeps developing their service portfolio towards wider range of VAS and specific customized services according to their customers’ and potential customers’ demand. Study is limited to the Swedish dry ports connected to the Port of Gothenburg by rail. The study focuses only on services and does not take into consideration other characteristics of the dry ports. The study contributes to the body of knowledge on dry port research by identifying the stakeholders’ benefits from particular services available at the dry ports.