Value-Added Services at Dry Ports: Balancing the Perspectives of Different Stakeholders

Journal article, 2021

The purpose of this study is to investigate which of dry ports’ services

generate the greatest positive impact on stakeholders and their objectives.

Stakeholders identified from the literature are the dry ports, the dry port’s

municipality/region, the seaport, shippers, shipping lines, rail operators,

and road operators. A method based on multi-actor multi-criteria analysis is

applied to allow the evaluation of different scenarios considering the objectives

and opinions of multiple stakeholders. The findings show that the basic

services of the dry ports studied are crucial to establishing initial operations.

Expanding the service portfolio by adding a wider range of customer-oriented

value-added services generates extra economic and environmental benefits

for stakeholders. The results expand the understanding on stakeholder

benefits from the diversified range of dry port services, while the inclusion

of multiple stakeholders in the analysis acknowledges the heterogeneity in

stakeholder perceptions. Finally, this methodology enables the creation of an

extensive set of criteria and indicators for dry port evaluations.