Basic efficiency measurement of Hungarian logistics centres using data envelopment analysis

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a non-parametric linear programming method capable of evaluating the efficiency of decision making units (DMUs) of various kinds. It is widely utilised for the ranking of companies operating in the transport sector. It is, however, not very often applied for the analysis of logistics centres, although its characteristics make it perfectly suitable for this purpose. The present article investigates how DEA can be used for the evaluation of Hungarian logistics centres. The statistic data of 26 DMUs have been collected and the sample has been corrected so as to include only the firms with sufficient data available for an extensive efficiency rating, leaving 12 logistics centres in the pool. Their efficiency was examined as based on the following inputs: surface size of offices, number of employees, surface of available storage space (excluding external storage facilities). The output considered was the volume of total sales revenue and in a second test, the tons of freight hand led. Aggregate, pure technical and scale efficiencies have also been determined.