A decision supportive method for multimodal freight transport mode choice: an example form Turkey

This article deals with the problem of choosing the best possible shipping alternative among a set of transportation modes based on four decision criteria. An Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)-like model was used to solve the problem. The developed model was run on a combination of rail–road–sea transportation, for Turkey. Instead of considering different commodity types, just the textile sector was modeled and studied for simplicity. The proposed model was shown to be very flexible with the considered criteria. Because of time and financial limitations the study area was restricted to Istanbul city. A short poll was conducted to find out the most important decision criterion for shippers. Subsequently, the first four most preferred criteria of the respondents were chosen to be embodied into the model. Finally, the model validity was proven by almost seventy percent accuracy along with the real life choices of the shippers.