Evaluation and selection of multimodal transport route between Thailand and China - A case study for rubber trade

As the key member states of the RCEP, China and Thailand will achieve more stable economic cooperation. The further prosperity of the Sino-Thai bilateral trade provides an opportunity for the development of multimodal transport between them. Since selecting a suitable multimodal transport route for the bilateral trade is important, this paper establishes a model based on Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Zero-One Goal Programming (ZOGP) for evaluating and selecting the multimodal transport route between China and Thailand by taking cost, time and risk as affecting factors into account. A numerical analysis by taking Thailand rubber export to China as an example has been done. The results show that the weight of transportation cost is the largest, followed by the transportation risk. By evaluating the seven typical routes from Songkhla (Thailand) to Qingdao (China), an optimal route is found, which proves the effectiveness and rationality of the modeling, and provides decision basis for decision makers.