System design and evaluation of intermodal transport solutions

The aim of this report is to outline a possible intermodal transport solution for temperature sensitive shipments on a pilot international European route and identify what’s required of this system in order to be competitive

The effect of transhipment costs on the performance of intermodal line-trains

Intermodal line-trains with intermediate stops between start and end terminals are regularly advocated by intermodal transport researchers as a means to compete with all-road transport on small volumes and short distance markets. A prerequisite for line-trains are innovative transhipment technologies facilitating fast and efficient transhipments, which is likely to increase the terminal costs. The major implementation barrier of line-trains is the uncertainty regarding costs of these innovative terminals and their network benefits. The purpose of this article is to analyse the effect of terminal costs on the network performance of intermodal line-trains. The paper is based on a case study, which assesses the potential modal share for an intermodal line-train on a corridor in Sweden. The results confirm that in theory intermodal line-trains can provide competitive services on short and medium transport distances in case transhipment costs are kept low. Naturally, lower transhipment costs reduce the production costs, but of even greater importance is the ability to achieve higher load factors, which decreases the door-to-door transport costs per load-unit. This opens business opportunities for operators and cost saving potential for shippers in a market segment, which is dominated by road transport

Information flows supporting hinterland transportation by rail: Applications in Sweden

This article analyses how information and communication technology (ICT) is used to support thehinterland transport of maritime containers. It focuses on the way information is conveyed betweenactors using an ICT facility structure, and how integrative information is used by different partners’information systems to make different transport operations more efficient and to offer improved service.The analysis includes the identification of the actor network and the management components in linewith supply chain management perspectives. To support this analysis, a conceptual model showing therelationship between integrative information and integrative technology was constructed and related tobusiness processes and an ICT maturity model found in the literature.Interviews were conducted with actors involved in Swedish hinterland rail transport. The informationflows were mapped and the analysis shows that while the current level of integration and ICT maturity isfairly low, several actors are currently modernising their systems. Their main motivation is to reduce theadministrative task load, and at the same time achieve better supply chain integration. The actors arefocused on their own tasks and do not see the advantages of advanced integration of the informationflows. The risk is identified that the IT level is increasing faster than business integration processesbetween the companies, which might lead to inefficiencies

Factors influencing transport buyer’s choice of transport service – A European literature review

The choice of transport service is a key issue in understanding the transport market and designing a competitive transport system. The customers’ choice of transport service is based on a number of factors that are considered and weighted against each other. For a transport service provider, e.g. a forwarder or a haulier, it is of key importance to understand which factors are important to the customer. Several studies have investigated the determining factors for the choice of a transport service. A review of the studies has been made in this research in order to compare and synthesize the previous findings on transport service choices. The review focuses on studies published in the English and Scandinavian languages after the year 1990. It includes studies on European conditions where the actual opinion of the transport customer has been studied through interviews and surveys, and does not include modelling approaches or analyses based on statistical data of the transport service choice. It is a fact that the knowledge about the transport service choice lies with the person making the decision. Although, studying the attitude of these people is often more challenging than other approaches, it is our opinion that these studies come closest to revealing the reasons for the transport service choice. The review includes a short overview of the studies and the methods used. The review finds that the important core factors in choosing transport services are cost, transport time, reliability and transport quality. After ensuring that the basic transport quality requirements are met (e.g. on-time deliveries, transport damages, transport times), most of the decisions are made based on price. However, the willingness to pay for lower environmental impact is low. Rail is perceived as being more environmental friendly, although several studies mention a negative attitude towards rail. The literature survey covers 1990 to 2009 and includes a structured overview of the leading academic journals, academic reports and dissertations complemented by non peer-reviewed reports from the Scandinavian countries. Although there is a potential difference in research quality between peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed reports, a significant share of publications is only published on-line and in other types of reports, and to ignore this research bears the risk of missing relevant studies. The peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed sources have been kept separate in the analysis. Both groups indicate the same important factors, and it is striking to notice the complete agreement between the groups. The inclusion of non-peer reviewed sources has thus increased the validity of the review and broadened the scope and in-depth understanding of the transport service choice. The research methods used in the studies, e.g. stated preferences, are also included in the analysis, and it is found that the different methods have similar results. What separates this literature review from previous reviews is the focus on the actual mapping of real customer attitudes and preferences and also the widened scope, which includes non-peer reviewed sources

Analysing biomass torrefaction supply chain costs

The objective of the present work was to develop a techno-economic system model to evaluate how logistics and production parameters affect the torrefaction supply chain costs under Swedish conditions. The model consists of four sub-models: (1) supply system, (2) a complete energy and mass balance of drying, torrefaction and densification, (3) investment and operating costs of a green field, stand-alone torrefaction pellet plant, and (4) distribution system to the gate of an end user. The results show that the torrefaction supply chain reaps significant economies of scale up to a plant size of about 150–200 kiloton dry substance per year (ktonDS/year), for which the total supply chain costs accounts to 31.8 euro per megawatt hour based on lower heating value (€/MWhLHV). Important parameters affecting total cost are amount of available biomass, biomass premium, logistics equipment, biomass moisture content, drying technology, torrefaction mass yield and torrefaction plant capital expenditures (CAPEX)

Information Flows Supporting Hinterland Transport: Applications in Sweden

This article analyses how information and communication technology (ICT) is used tosupport hinterland transport of maritime containers. The focus is on how information isconveyed between actors using an ICT facility structure and how integrative information is usedby different partners’ information systems for making the different transport operations moreefficient and enabling an improved service offer.The analysis includes identification of the actor network and the management components inline with supply chain management (SCM) perspectives. To support this analysis a conceptualmodel showing the relationship between the integrative information and integrative technologywas constructed and related to business process and an ICT maturity model found in theliterature.Interviews have been conducted with actors involved in Swedish hinterland rail transport. Theinformation flows have been mapped and the analysis shows that the current level of integrationand ICT maturity is fairly low, but that several actors currently are modernising their systems.Their main motivation is to reduce the administrative tasks, rather than achieving a supply chainintegration.The article shows that a proper handling of the information flow opens up for new businessmodels and can make existing models more efficient. The ICT system must support the properintegration of the ocean, seaport and hinterland parts of the transport chain as well as auxiliaryservices

Analyzing animal waste-to-energy supply chains: The case of horse manure

To reduce human impact upon the environment, a transition from fossil to renewable energy sources such as biomass is imperative. Biomass from animal waste such as horse manure has unutilized potential as it has yet to be implemented at a large scale as an energy source. Research has demonstrated the technical feasibility of using animal waste for energy conversion, though their supply chain cost poses a barrier, as does a gap in research regarding the specific design of efficient horse manure-to-energy supply chains. In response, we investigated the design of horse manure-to-energy supply chains through interviews and site visits at stables, as well as through interviews with transport companies. Our findings show that horse manure-to-energy supply chains have distinct attributes at all stages of the supply chain such as the geographical spread of stables that determines supply chain design and hampers efficiency. They share several such attributes with forest biomass-to-energy supply chains, from which important needs can be identified, including the industrial development of trucks dedicated to the purpose, mathematical modeling to handle the trade-off of cost of substance loss in storage and cost of transport, and business models that reconcile the conflicting goals of different actors along the supply chains

Trafikslags\uf6vergripande databas f\uf6r godstransporter

M\ue5nga anser att nuvarande statistikproduktionen inom godstransportomr\ue5det inte \ue4r tillr\ue4cklig f\uf6r att tillgodose alla intressenters olika behov och en komplettering av den officiella statistiken har diskuterats under en l\ue5g tid. Syftet med denna f\uf6rstudie \ue4r att identifiera myndigheters och transportbranschens databehov samt krav och \uf6nskem\ue5l avseende en gemensam godstransportdatabas. Dessutom skall den direkta eller indirekta p\ue5verkan fr\ue5n andra intressenter beaktas. F\uf6rstudien belyser ocks\ue5 de sekretesskrav som p\ue5verkar uppbyggnaden av en databas

Biofuels

WP1 Report, Sustainable Intermodal Supply Systems for Biofuel and Bulk Freigh