Identification and Prioritization of Freight Transportation Pricing Strategies, Using SWOT and QSPM Techniques (Case Study: Railway)

Because of the advantages of the railway transport like less accidents, energy consumption and environmental pollution, Iranian government pays special attention to this mode of transportation. However, the Iranian Railways (RAI) has not yet been able to gain its share of the freight market. As one of the main elements of the marketing mix, pricing plays crucial role in increasing the share of railway in the market and adopting the right and timely strategies in this regard can lead RAI to achieve its grand goals. In this study, the most important internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) of RAI in the field of business and especially price identified by studying the literature review and interviews with rail transport business experts, then strategies in this field were identified using SWOT technique. In the next step, the identified strategies were prioritized by using QSPM technique. The results show that developing the brand, improving customer orientation, get government subsidies for the social benefits of railways and increasing market share through the developing a pricing model, are presented as the top-priority strategies of the RAI that can take the initiative in freight transportation pricing.