The Scientific-Methodological Approaches to Transport Risks Management in Multimodal Freight Transportations

Abstract

This study is aimed at increasing the efficiency of multimodal freight transportations by forming a risks management system based on the identification of transport risk factors, methods of their measurement and management both at the projecting (planning) stage of the multimodal route and further on – in order to assess their possible impact on the efficiency of freight transportation in general. The authors examine the problematics of multimodal freight transportations organization in the context of transport risks management, which provides for the choice of such an option of management influences on elements of the transportation system (logistics centers, transport hubs, various types of transport, freight transport units, specific transport companies and their rolling stock, containers, etc.), in which freight delivery would be carried out in terms of the most efficient and qualitative indicators under the known initial conditions and existing restrictions. The article substantiates the proposals development in view of optimal relationships between elements of multimodal freight transportations on the basis of an efficient risks management system, which is a special type of management activity directed towards mitigating the influence of risk groups, determining the permissible (acceptable) level of risk based on methods that allow avoiding losses arising as result of a particular risk. A methodical approach to choosing the optimal multimodal transport-technological scheme is proposed, which allows considering subjective criteria (completeness of service, reliability, etc.) as decisive under the condition of relatively equal cost and time of alternative freight delivery options and in the context of permissible values of such objective criteria as storage conditions, high-speed mode of transportation in the territory of a particular country, region, city, axial load, climatic conditions, ecological restrictions, etc. At the scientific-methodological level, the stage of the decision-making process is generalized along with the separation of relevant goals in the context of managing transport risks in multimodal freight transportations, the observance of which will guarantee to ensure the acceptance by the operator of multimodal transportations of a rational and secure transport-technological scheme of freight delivery.

Keywords

• multimodal freight transportation
• transport risks
• risk management system
• risk assessment methods
• multimodal transportations operator