Enhancing petroleum logistics with innovative decision support mechanism for fuel tanker selection

Transportation of petroleum-based products is a complex and hazardous logistics process. Selecting the appropriate transportation vehicles for this process is crucial for ensuring safety and efficiency. Therefore, prioritizing selection criteria and choosing the most suitable fuel tanker is essential in reducing potential risks and improving overall fleet operations. Given the many types of tankers available for petroleum product transportation, decision-makers should employ a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach to identify the best option for their specific needs. This study introduces a novel MCDM approach that combines the Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS) and the Criteria Importance through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) in a Fermatean fuzzy (FF) environment, addressing five main criteria and evaluating five fuel tanker alternatives. Using this approach, the research identified and prioritized key criteria for selecting an appropriate tanker model by providing insights into 24 sub-criteria. The results reveal that tanker price emerges as the most important sub-criterion, leading us to determine the M3 tanker model as the most suitable fuel tanker after carefully evaluating all 24 different sub-criteria. The findings can significantly assist petroleum firms in making informed decisions when choosing fuel tankers by considering various technical, operational, comfort, environmental, and economic factors. The results can also be used to inform policy on fuel distribution.