Exploratory data analysis for the cancellation of slot booking in intercontinental container liner shipping: A case study of Asia to US West Coast Service

In an intercontinental container liner service, container shipping operators reserve container slots for the customers who book capacity for their cargoes a few weeks before the ship depart from a particular port. In practice, some of these bookings are finally cancelled without loading any containers onto the ships, which leads to a low loading rate and revenue loss. However, deep analyses of container slot booking cancellation in container liner services rarely appear in the literature due to the lack of real data. The characteristics and patterns of the container slot booking cancellation are unclear from both academic and managerial perspectives. To fill this gap, this study first proposes a conceptual model for the container slot booking cancellation analysis in intercontinental shipping services. A case study on a container liner service between Asia and US west coast is then conducted based on the proposed model. The static and dynamic cancellation rates of voyage, the attributes of bookings, and the factors that may influence the cancellation behaviours are inspected and discussed. The primary findings of this study will benefit both the academic research on container shipping slot bookings and the practices of the slot cancellation control in container shipping company. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd