Pricing Strategy Of Two-echelon Marine Transportation Service Chain With Empty Container Repositioning

Affected by factors such as unbalanced trade,domestic and foreign marine container shipping companies are now facing serious empty container repositioning problems.Coupled with the rapid development of the shipping industry,liner companies have accelerated the process of integrated services,and the pressure of internal competition in the industry is huge.In the face of an over-competitive market environment,shipping companies that want to improve market competitiveness must not only improve service quality,but also increase cost control.Among them,the cost issue is an important factor that affects the competitiveness of freight,especially the cost of empty container repositioning caused by unbalanced freight caused by trade,tariffs and other costs.This paper uses a combination of theoretical analysis and numerical examples,using dynamic programming,Kuhn-Tucker condition,Bertrand game and Stackelberg game and other game theory related theories and methods to analyze the sea transportation between two-way ports.The pricing strategy of empty container repositioning in the service chain was studied,and the importance of empty container repositioning in the operation and management of the maritime service chain was discussed.From the perspective of liner companies,the optimal capacity pricing strategy and empty container repositioning strategy of each participant in the shipping service chain are obtained under different competitive situations.And considering the changing factors of the market environment,the operation level of each participant in the maritime service chain under different market environments is analyzed,in order to provide a certain theoretical basis for the actual maritime service chain operation and management.The article first considers that the previous literature only considers the single competitive relationship between the participating entities in the shipping service chain.It is assumed that the liner company and the freight forwarder have a vertical Stackelberg game,and there is a horizontal Bertrand game between the freight forwarders.In the two-echelon marine transportation service chain consisting of a monopolistic liner company and two freight forwarders with horizontal competition,the liner company’s empty container repositioning strategy and capacity pricing strategy are studied.At this time,the liner company only provides freight forwarders with capacity Instead of participating in market competition.A price competition game model between liner companies and freight forwarders is established under two modes: liner companies bear empty container repositioning costs and freight forwarders bear empty container repositioning costs.Using dynamic programming theory and Kuhn-Tucker conditions,the equilibrium of the optimal contract signing strategy between the liner company and the freight forwarder is solved,and the liner company’s empty container repositioning strategy and optimal capacity pricing strategy are obtained.Our study found that the operating strategies of the liner companies under the two empty container repositioning cost bearing modes depend on the degree of potential demand imbalance,And the liner company can transfer the cost of empty container distribution to the freight forwarding agent by adjusting the freight capacity pricing.Then through theoretical analysis,the influence of market environment changes on the choice of liner company’s capacity sales strategy and empty container repositioning strategy and the operating level of the participating entities in the maritime service chain is obtained.Next,the article considers the situation in the actual shipping market where liner companies provide shipping capacity to freight forwarders while also participating in market competition.The problem of empty container repositioning and pricing strategy in the shipping service chain when horizontal competition and vertical competition coexist between liner companies and freight forwarders is studied.Assuming that in addition to selling container shipping capacity to freight forwarders through wholesale,liner companies can also choose to sell shipping capacity to shippers through direct sales,which further expands the competitive relationship between liner companies and freight forwarders in the shipping service chain.The article first describes this competitive relationship in the form of an inverse demand function,and then establishes a corresponding two-stage game model,also uses dynamic programming theory and Kuhn-Tucker conditions to solve the model,and obtains the empty container of the liner company Allocation strategy and optimal capacity pricing strategy.The study found that the liner company’s willingness to reposition empty containers is related to the range of unit cargo transportation costs.In addition,the increase of unit empty container transportation costs always has a negative effect on the optimal profit of the liner company,and freight forwarders may profit from it.Finally,a numerical example is used to analyze how the changes in market environment parameters affect the operation strategy of liner companies and the operation level of the participating entities in the marine transportation service chain.