“Different types of logistics users have different requirements and concerns that affect their choice of routes and modes of transport. A central component of the suite of tools that make up SYNCHRO-NET is a dynamic stakeholder assessment module that determines what a stakeholder wants in a given situation and allows the ranking by importance of the different attributes that determine the choice of synchro-modal itineraries. Preferences across key attributes such as trip distance, duration, emissions and risk are likely to vary by user category (as well as by type of shipment, time of year, origin and destination country, etc.), and the stakeholder assessment module will allow us to clearly identify how the tools work best for each user group. The team designed a methodology through which user preferences over route options can be measured and thus feed in to the development of SYNCHRO-NET’s functionalities. The module that implements the methodology is currently being developed and will ensure that SYNCHRO-NET tools meet the requirements of different stakeholders in terms of usefulness, accessibility, transparency and ease of use.
The proposed methodology is a two-stage process in which attributes are first ranked and then assessed through a series of comparisons between two attributes at a time. The approach allows us to capture trade-offs between the route attributes available in the SYNCHRO-NET demonstrators in an efficient way and provide quantitative estimates of how important different route attributes are to different stakeholder groups.”
