Time at ports in short sea shipping: When timing is crucial

From the perspective of Short Sea Shipping (SSS), as an intermodal competitor in the freight market, the time spent within the whole transport corridor is a major issue, in contrast to deep sea shipping where differences in time may not be as relevant as, for example, the contract of carriage or a ship’s position, among other aspects. Although there exist numerous studies that have estimated port or terminal efficiency, most have focused on quantities as outputs and factors such as labour force or capital as inputs, mainly through the use of techniques such as data envelopment analysis or stochastic frontier analysis. The structure of the time ships spend in ports has generally not been considered. After reviewing the port efficiency literature and by taking into consideration the structure of the time ships spend in SSS ports or terminals, this article develops a theoretical analysis of this concept and proposes the direct utilization of the time in ports as a suitable measure for port efficiency analysis. From an empirical example, we show how the inclusion of time in efficiency analysis can modify the results derived from a more traditional approach based just on quantities.