Role of intermodality in global sourcing and offshore outsourcing: maritime transport and new rail connections between Europe and Asia

The work deals with the technical possibility of using railway connections between Europe and Asia - by way of the rail links under renewal in relation also with some United Nations’ plans - for changing the commercial relationships between the two continents. Maritime transport has already undertaken, in the last years, different relationships, which elude in many connections the Suez Canal, therefore possibly the Mediterranean Sea; valorising the global sourcing and the offshore outsourcing in the vision of the Europe-Russia-Western and Eastern Asia new relationships by rail may reconfigure a renewed and faster international transport of goods as well as create commercial corridors based on trains beside full-container ships: these have, on their side, distinguished the last half century of freight, mainly thanks to standardisation of the loading units and given energy reasons. According to the authors, the economical outcomes are well worth devoting commercial and offshore outsourcing attention

Analysis of outsourcing conditions for freight transport and logistics among manufacturing companies: Insights from a review of data and a field investigation

This paper reports the results of a research work carried out among manufacturing companies of the metropolitan area of Turin (Italy) to investigate status and motivation for outsourcing transport and logistics services or for choosing otherwise, as well as to clarify which commercial terms are used and why, since the choice of commercial terms affects transport and logistics. Also other points, including e-commerce and logistics, were examined. The work involved interviewing the managers of sixteen manufacturing companies of different types and was carried out during 2016-2017, on behalf of the Association of transport and logistics companies belonging to the "Unione Industriale" of Torino

Monitoring truck's operations at freight intermodal terminals: traffic observation by scanning on-board devices

Monitoring operations at freight intermodal terminals are useful for estimating their performance, while collecting traffic data allows them to properly manage and control truck flows. Nevertheless, the key role of observation can be in contrast with users' privacy. A valuable solution to obtain traffic information preserving players' anonymity may be provided by scanning radio signals emitted by commonly used on-board devices, which can be locally identified by their unique media access control address. In this solution, no personal, freight or vehicle information is collected. An uncommon application of bluetooth scanners for monitoring operation of truck flows inside terminals is presented, based on a simple methodology for data processing. The algorithm starts from the data collection and the selection of information at relevant points of the terminal, then the network observation is composed by matching the data recorded in connected points. Finally, key performance indicators are estimated, starting from vehicle trajectories, node by node, and their travel time. The method is applied with on-field tests in a large-size rail-road terminal, where the detected counting results are lower than the ground truth, being not all the users equipped with bluetooth devices; however, the pioneering application results replicable in other contexts related to logistics

Ricollocazione della piattaforma logistica di Torino-Orbassano nella rete intermodale europea con funzione gateway

L’articolo motiva la ricollocazione del nodo di Torino, per il trasporto passeggeri, e di Orbassano, per le merci, nel contesto della rete trans-europea dei trasporti. Successivamente, dedicandosi solo alle merci, descrive, sulla base delle analisi di traffico riportate, la nuova piattaforma logistica estesa di Torino-Orbassano, alla luce della connessione ferroviaria Torino-Lione (indicativamente, 2030) e del rinnovato sistema portuale ligure occidentale. La piattaforma verrebbe così riconfigurata come nodo cardine nella rete di trasporto sia nazionale sia europea, con funzione di trasporto combinato strada-rotaia così come di gateway ferroviario, chiave di lettura moderna del vecchio concetto di smistamento svolto mediante sella di lancio, recentemente dismessa a Torino per lasciare posto ad un nuovo terminal, la cui progettazione preliminare e non vincolante è qui introdotta

Collegamenti ferroviari del Piemonte: problematiche e rimedi

Collegamenti ferroviari del Piemonte: problematiche e rimedi, basati sui punti di forza e di debolezza delle reti terrestri di trasporto, fornendo soluzioni alle problematiche emerse derivanti dallo sviluppo delle linee ad alta velocità, della ferrovia Torino-Lione in particolare

The Spread of MaaS Initiatives in Europe: The Leading Role of Public Governance Emerging from an Italian Regional Application

Mobility as a service (MaaS) is a promising lever to achieve a more sustainable, co-modal, and flexible urban system for daily mobility. MaaS is crucial to addressing the challenges imposed by hyper-urbanization, social changes, saturation of public soil with private motor vehicles, and local and global environmental issues. The aim of this paper is to analyse important characteristics of MaaS, namely public governance, regional scale, and high level of development. A total of 13 MaaS initiatives implemented in some European cities were compared using multi-criteria analysis. The results show that, although the MaaS implementation process is faster for private initiatives, public governance is shown to be the most appropriate entity to develop stable MaaS services, as it can enable the achievement of a higher level of integration, coupled with a high rate of service adoption, as well as reduce market entry barriers for service providers while also guaranteeing fair competition, and consequently fostering a higher level of service provided to users. The regional coverage of MaaS is crucial to ensure service provision to a wider population, living in both metropolitan and rural areas. These important features are included in the BIPforMaaS project run by the Italian region of Piedmont, described in detail in this paper

Role of COVID-19 and motionless communication on expected trends of mobility: Evidence from Italian and Turin data

The 2020-2021 pandemic has changed everyday mobility for part of the world. One of the main elements of change is the consolidation of distance working, which further prompted communications without mobility. The emergency-induced reduction of systematic travel demand has been counterbalanced by the increased volume of web traffic. As a result, communications which formerly required mobility have been regularly performed virtually during the lockdowns. This paper quantifies this phenomenon, with a focus on the Italian city of Turin, in Italy, which was one of the first countries hit by COVID-19, soon after China. Local mobility data trends before and during the lockdown are presented and compared. Implications for the "new normal" ahead are discussed. The paper provides directions for further transport policies, with the aim of advancing knowledge of this transportation topic

Transport and energy in India. Energy used by Indian transport systems and consequent emissions: the need for quantitative analyses (Well-to-Wheel, Lifecycle)

The purpose of this work is, at first, a general overview on the state-of-art of the transportation system in India outlining the related energy consumption, for the different transport modes, with consequent estimated emissions. These elements are essential for the preparation of a high-level strategic transport planning on the whole energy issue, to help India in the choices of most suitable transportation systems, according to the well-to-wheel analysis (WTW). Pursuing a WTW global index for India that takes into account both the energy and environmental aspects on a uniform basis is an important aim: it allows the best choices to be made as well as enabling the comparison between some of the most important powertrain and fuel options on the Indian market, the results are discussed from three different points of view: energy, environmental and economic impact