A framework for understanding reliability in container shipping networks

Improving reliability is increasingly regarded as an important topic in maritime transportation, especially given the significant impact that both uncertainty and delays in shipping and at ports have on the efficient flow of freight along wider supply chains. The term ‘reliability’ appears in different academic fields and with a variety of different meanings and interpretations. In transportation, reliability has been studied in most modes, but less so in the case of maritime containerisation. This paper reports on a systematic literature review of the concept of reliability in transportation, with a focus on reliability in container shipping networks. The selected papers were analysed to extract information according to the three identified sub-networks: (1) ports, including studies with a focus on infrastructure, service availability and risks in ports and hinterlands; (2) network structures, including the configuration of the networks, the vulnerability and resilience of the existing networks; (3) supply chains, including connectivity and planning of activities that integrate stakeholders within the supply chain. These sub-networks were then used to further query the database, searching for papers relevant to the research problem. Two research questions are addressed: (1) How is reliability best understood in the context of container shipping networks? (2) What are the determinants that affect container shipping network reliability? The review showed that there is no uniform definition of reliability in container shipping networks, but different approaches to understand it, depending on the theoretical perspective, have been adopted. Influencing factors and relevant metrics are discussed and a framework combining different dimensions of reliability, expressed as three themes, i.e., infrastructure reliability, network configuration reliability, and connectivity reliability, is developed. This can help both practitioners and researchers to understand in more detail the various dimensions and nuances of reliability specifically in the context of container shipping, its interrelationship with wider logistics systems and how, where possible, reliability can be improved.