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The selection of a proper international freight transport route is one of the crucial tasks for decision-makers since it can affect costs, efficiency, and transportation performance. Besides, the selection of suitable and appropriate freight routes can also reduce external costs of transportation such as emissions, noise, traffic congestions, accidents, and so on. Route selection in international transportation is a complicated decision-making problem as many conflicting factors and criteria affect the assessment process. It has been observed that there is no mathematical model and methodological frame used for solving these selection problems, and decision-makers make decisions on this issue based on their own experiences and verbal judgments in the research process. Therefore, a methodological frame is required to make rational, realistic, and optimal decisions on route selection. From this perspective, the current paper proposes using the IVAIF CODAS, an extended version of the traditional CODAS techniques, and using the Atanassov interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IVAIFS) for processing better the existing uncertainties. The proposed model is applied to solve the route selection, a real-life decision-making problem encountered in international transportation between EU countries and Turkey. According to the results of the analysis, option A6 (i.e., Route-6 (Bursa–Istanbul–Pendik–Trieste (Ro-Ro)–Austria–Frankfurt/Germany) has been determined as the best alternative. These obtained results have been approved by a comprehensive sensitivity analysis performed by using different MCDM techniques based on interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets. Hence, it can be accepted that the proposed model is an applicable, robust, and powerful mathematical tool; also, it can provide very reliable, accurate, and reasonable results. As a result, the proposed model can provide a more flexible and effective decision-making environment as well as it can provide valuable advantages to the logistics and transport companies for carrying out practical, productive, and lower cost logistics operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Positioning in the right location for organizing logistics activities is a determinative factor in the aspect of costs, effectivity, productivity, and performance of these operations carried out by logistics firms. The proper logistics village selection is a crucial, complicated, and time-consuming process for decision-makers who have to make the right and optimal decision on this issue. Decision-makers need a methodological frame with a practical algorithm that can be implemented quickly to solve these decision-making problems. Within this scope, the current paper aims to present an evaluation tool, which provides more reasonable and reliable results for decision-makers to solve the logistics village selection problem that is very complicated and has uncertain conditions based on fuzzy approaches. In this study, we propose the Improved Fuzzy Step-Wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (IMF SWARA), a modified and extended version of the traditional fuzzy Step-Wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (F-SWARA) to identify the criteria weights. Also, we suggest applying the fuzzy Multi-Attributive Border Approximation area Comparison (F-MABAC) technique to determine the preference ratings of the alternatives. This combination has many valuable contributions. For example, it proposes to use a more reliable and consistent evaluation scale based on fuzzy sets. Hence, decision-makers can perform more reliable and reasonable pairwise comparisons by considering this evaluation scale. Besides, it presents a multi-attribute evaluation system based on the identified criteria weights. From this perspective, the proposed model is implemented to evaluate eight different logistics village alternatives with respect to nine selection criteria. According to the analysis results, while A8 is the most appropriate option, C1 Gross National Product (GNP) is the most significant criterion. A comprehensive sensitivity analysis was performed to test the robustness and validation of the proposed model, and the results of the analysis approve the validity and applicability of the proposed model. As a result, the suggested integrated MCDM framework can be applied as a valuable and practical decisionmaking tool to develop new strategies and improve the logistics operations by decision-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]