ASSESSMENT OF DRY PORT PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN ETHIOPIA: A CASE STUDY OF MODJO DRY PPORT

Abstract

Dry ports promote regional development and which are especially useful in land-locked countries whose shipments come through a neighboring sea port. Ethiopia has started constructing dry ports in its hinterland along the transit corridors. And this move has helped the country to save the foreign currency and increased its efficiency in import and export operation. Among the constructed dry ports, Modjo has been identified by the government as the key node for the emerging Ethiopian intermodal trade logistics system. Thus, the efficiency of the whole logistics supply chain largely depends on dry ports as they act as the integrating and coordinating mechanism between different components. To reap the maximum benefit from those dry ports, the efficient and effective performance of the dry ports is very crucial and to do that it is important to assess the performance of dry ports. Hence the objective of this research was to assess the performance of dry port operation management practices based on port performance indicators and ranking factors based on their level of importance. In order to achieve this objective, the researcher has used quantitative and qualitative research methods, Data was collected from 129 employees out of 192 sample frame and 50 customers. The data was collected using questionnaire and interview, and data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and interpretation with the support of secondary data. The result of the study was indicated that backward of custom clearance process, poor Infrastructure and equipment management practice, discontented service provided situation, poor cargo handling efficiency in terms of container throughput, and incidents, delay and waiting time was recorded, and these were factors of the overall dry port performance whereas showed poor performance regarding the management practices, according to the study result recommended severely that the need to improvement of the dry port operational management practices.