Clustering on freight distribution system in archipelagic region with deterministic allocation model

The ship operational costs in Indonesia tend to suffer losses because of its geographical shape with clustering islands, overlapping shipping networks, and small size of cargo.This condition causes the government to provide subsidies/Public Service Obligation (PSO) to guarantee the availability of goods in remote, outer and border islands. The clustering system is believed to be capable of optimizing the network so that there is no overlap in the operational area of the ship. The port clustering model will form port clusters that will be used in the integration model organization of the freight transportation on the Sea Tollway, Pelni and Pioneer ship network. The method used is a deterministic allocation model with R-tools. The results of the clustering implementation in the freight distribution system on Maluku Province shows that the implementation of the 3 clusters system increases the profit by 15.7% (compared to the current system which does not use clustering), whereas the income earned is actually lower with the 9 clusters system. These results indicate that the clustering system does not always increase profits from PSO transportation services. The more clusters formed, the higher the operational costs of the ship and the less cargo can be transported, hence the reduced revenue.