Selection of Fuel Supplier for Transport Firms by Using the Ahp

Abstract

Selection of proper fuel supplier is extremely important for companies that carry out transportation activities and it can be evaluated as a critical decision to obtain competitive advantages in the transportation market. A structural and systematic frame is suggested in this paper in order to solve the decision problems for fuel supplier selection. In order to determine the selection criteria, the board of experts was constructed and a large number of roundtable meetings that realized in the way of brainstorm were organized with them. One of the most important questions can be asked as what are the selection criteria and decision options for the fuel supplier selection process? Experts who are a decision maker in their companies tried to seek a rational answer to this question. At the end of these meetings, obtained results were re-evaluated by the members of the board and selection criteria and decision options that will use for evaluation process were determined. The decision alternatives are Brand-P, Brand-B, Brand-S, and Brand-O. The selection criteria can be sorted as: fuel price per liter, product quality, service quality, easy terms of payment, brand awareness, environmental sensitivity. Actually, selection of fuel and fuel supplier has an extremely complex characteristic and it is a multicriteria decision-making problem. In this paper, the analytic hierarchy process theory was selected as a multi-criteria decision making problem in order to solve the decision making problem concerning with fuel and fuel supplier selection process. By using this methodology, decision makers can select the best fuel brand and fuel supplier by comparing variables such as selection criteria and decision alternatives in a mathematical model.