Assessment of 3PL Providers for Hazardous Materials

Abstract

Hazardous materials (hazmat) production and transportation have been increasing continuously. Especially, as they could harm people and environment during hazmat transportation, the firms tend to give hazmat transportation and other logistic activities to third party logistics (3PL) providers. Although there are many studies on hazmat, to the best of our knowledge we have not met the studies on 3PL provider selection for hazmat. Therefore, the aim of this study is to propose an assessment multi criteria decision making (MCDM) model for the selection of 3PL provider for hazmat. In this model, fuzzy decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) is used to weight of criteria. Fuzzy DEMATEL is a comprehensive technique to build and analyze a structural model involving causal relationships among complex criteria. Fuzzy TOPSIS is utilized to assess the alternatives. To show applicability and effectiveness of the proposed model, an illustrative example is presented in our study.