Abstract:
This research aimed to analyze and evaluate the critical factors for selecting sustainable transportation service providers in the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate area in Rayong province. The methodology for this research was a mixed method. The sample consisted of decision-makers who selected a transportation service provider, including safety and environment system managers, transportation system planning managers, joint transportation managers, outbound dangerous goods managers, inbound dangerous goods managers, outbound supervisors, and inbound supervisors. The data was collected from thirteen persons from eight companies using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) for qualitative data collection, and a structured questionnaire for quantitative data collection. The results showed that critical factors for selecting a transportation service provider are as follows: 1) Economic aspects: price (50.51%), and reliability of the company (19.67%), 2) Social aspects: work performance (13.59%), occupational health, and safety (7.00%), and corporate social responsibility (5.23%), and 3) Environmental aspects: responsible and environmental management systems (4.00%). Based on the results of the evaluation of the twenty-two sub-factors, the factor with the highest weight was found to be ranked 1) Term of payment (36.96%), 2) Cost per trip (13.56%), and 3) Product liability insurance (6.17%), respectively. In addition, considering the sustainability perspective, the economic factors had the highest total weight (83.76%), followed by the social factors (12.23%) and the environmental factors (4.00%). Therefore, transportation service providers should focus on sustainable strategies and operational plans to improve their services to meet operational standards.