The Use of Port Performance Indexes in the Transport Economy and the Strengthening of Port Competitiveness

(University of Latvia, Latvia)

Abstract: Ports in the transport economy have an important role to play in the competitiveness of ports.  There is an increasing climate of competition, which causes ports to invest in development and to improve their transport corridors, governance principles and pricing policies in order to strengthen international competitiveness of ports and to ensure that their management practices are in line with the positive international experience. In order to increase the efficiency of transport, to promote the use of environmentally friendly technologies and to improve the international competitiveness of port transport corridors, it is important for ports to determine their own KPI indicators that would be used to assess port performance indicators. As ports are responsible for the quality assurance of port services, even if they do not provide such services, monitoring and assessing of the KPI must be part of the quality assurance process. The objective of this study is to define the port performance-enhancing KPI indexes and to make suggestions for how KPI application in the transport economy can strengthen the international competitiveness of ports and ensure that their management practises international experience. The study’s tasks are to define the appropriate KPI indexes, group them according to interlinked principles, and provide proposals on how to use them to improve the international competitiveness of ports and the main transport system multimodal integration.

Key words: KPI; port performance; transport economics

JEL codes: R40, R42, R49