세월호참사 이후 내항여객운송 운임제도 변화고찰 - 유류비할증 도입 -

Abstract

This study is concerning the newly introduced bunkering surcharge to the coastwise passenger transport services after the disaster of the Sewol ferry sinking in 2014. The tragedy of the Sewol awakened the coastwise passenger transport industry to more strictly enforce various safety standards and regulations. To meet needs of the industry to provide safe and sustainable services to coastal passengers, it is necessary to charge these additional costs to passengers. In other sectors of the transport industries domestically and abroad, bunkering surcharge has been applied to cover rising fuel prices. This paper discusses a possible introduction of bunkering surcharge to the coastwise passenger transport, by strictly screening the cost structure of the coastwise passenger transport industry. The unit price of fuels is based on the prices provided to the Korean Shipping Association members. In this paper, a bunkering surcharge scheme is discussed and the relationship between the incurred costs to the firms in the coastwise passenger transport services and fuel prices are considered. Fuel prices to the coastwise passenger transport companies are a reflection of the international fuel prices. Taking this into account, cost functions of changes in relation to fuel prices are discussed. A sensitivity analysis model of cost changes in calculating service costs adopted a cost function, generally applied in microeconomics, shall be applied. For this purpose, panel data had been collected. Panel data include the data from 220 coastal shipping vessels, over the past 5 years, from 2009 to 2013. The types of vessels in the data are composed of 22 high speed ferries, 19 traditional ferries, 115 small scale car-ferries, 27 super-speed ferries, 21 car ferries and 16 speed jet ferries. Findings of a panel regression analysis show a statistical significance and difference in sensitivity by vessel type. In the final analysis, it was difficult to apply each sensitivity by vessel type directly. So an average sensitivity of all vessel types is applied as a base in determining the bunkering surcharge. According to the proposed bunkering surcharge scheme, an average price of MGO(H), the general fuel mostly used by the coastwise passenger transport companies during 2004-2013, should be set at 670 Korean Won per liter as a base. This surcharge may then be applied two times per year according to the changes in oil. After implementing the bunkering surcharge scheme, it is recommended to examine the scheme in relationship of changes in demand of passengers against the surcharge imposed.