Assessing the impact of procedural security on container port efficiency

Despite the growing amount of research into container-port security regulations, no attempt has been made to-date to empirically investigate the ex-post impacts of security regulations on the operational efficiency of seaports and terminals. This article attempts to empirically assess and analyse the procedural impacts stemming from the requirements of port security regulations on the operational efficiency of container terminals. A stepwise Malmquist Data Envelopment Analysis approach is used to track productivity changes of 420 container-terminal decision-making units from 2002 till 2008, both on a multi-year basis and on a regulatory-run basis. The analysis of the impact of security on operational efficiency shows that the latter varies greatly by type of regulation and terminal, but there is a strong evidence of generalised productivity gains from targeted inspection prompted by cargo pre-screening and reporting and from the technological progress prompted by the investments in new security technology.