Key Risk Factors Influencing Harbor Tugboat Operations for Kaohsiung Port

Wen-Jui Tseng ； Ji-Feng Ding ； Chia-Ming Liu ； Liou-Yuan Li

《Journal of Marine Science and Technology》 29卷3期 (2021/06) Pp. x+354-364

https://doi.org/10.51400/2709-6998.1439

摘要

The harbor tugboat operation is a very important business and process of Kaohsiung port. To ensure the safety of harbor tugboat operations and to reduce the occurrence of accidents, it is an important issue to conduct a risk assessment of tugboat operations for Kaohsiung port. Hence, the main purpose of this paper is employ the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method to evaluate key risk factors influencing the harbor tugboat operations for Kaohsiung port. At first, a total of three evaluation dimensions with 14 preliminary risk factors are generated from literature and interviews of tugboat captains. We then applied the steps of AHP method and AHP experts' questionnaires to evaluate the key risk factors. The empirical results showed that: (1) 'Tugboat operators' is the most important risk evaluation dimension influencing harbor tugboat operations for Kaohsiung port in Taiwan. (2) In order of relative importance, The top six key risk factors influencing the harbor tugboat operations for Kaohsiung port are ＂judgment error,＂ ＂work fatigue,＂ ＂poor skills,＂ ＂communication misunderstanding,＂ ＂negligence of the relative motion between tugboats and commercial ships,＂ and ＂personality factors,＂ respectively. Furthermore, some recommendations concerning effective risk management strategies and advices are provided for harbor tugboat practitioners.

關鍵字

Risk ； Harbor tugboat operation ； Kaohsiung port ； Analytic hierarchy process (AHP)