The factors affecting the container vessel turnaround time at Port of Colombo

Terminal operators and shipping lines are concerned about high vessel turnaround time (VTT). Proper management of it could result in major cost reductions and improvement in the service, especially in the container shipping sector. To identify the factors affecting Vessel turnaround time, analytical hierarchical process (AHP) analysis was used and three main container terminals of the Port of Colombo, namely Colombo International Container Terminal, Jaya Container Terminal and South Asian Gateway Terminal were subjected in studying these phenomena. Three main factors and ten sub-factors affecting the turnaround time were considered under AHP. Rankings for main factors and sub-factors were prepared using their priority vectors and overall weight calculations for each terminal. Cargo transferring related delays and berthing related delays were the most influential main factors towards turnaround time, for all three terminals. But in the second level of causation, factors and their weights in affecting turnaround time differ from terminal to terminal. Some suggestions considering individual situations of terminals were made to enhance performance with regard to VTT.