Alternative transport network designs and their implications for intermodal transhipment technologies

Six principles for operation of the rail part of intermodal rail freight transport systems are described: direct link, corridor, hub-and-spoke, connected hubs, static routes, and dynamic routes. The first part is a theoretical discussion of the characteristics of the transport network designs. The theory is then applied to intermodal freight transport by analysing how each transport network design affects the need for terminal performance. The discussion includes a classification of existing transfer technologies and an analysis of how well developed technologies meet the demands. It is concluded that there is a sufficient supply of technologies, but some need to be taken further than the current blueprint phase and prove their viability in technical and economic terms

Development of New Technologies for Integrated Transport Chains in Europe

Transport systems are designed according to geographical and infrastructural conditions as well as the demand for transport services in terms of goods flow and desired transport quality. Thorough knowledge about these factors is especially important for developers of integrated transport chains that must consider the preconditions for all links and nodes in the transport chain. Due to the additional costs of terminal handling and local road haulage, transport relations must exceed a certain minimum distance to allow CT to compete with pure road transport. This implies that international CT is of greater importance than domestic CT for most European countries and compatibility between national networks is of utmost importance. Contrary to this fact, transfer technology development is by many still considered to be governed by national policies and preconditions. This paper aims at describing the national features that logically should guide the development of combined transport transshipment technology, national and EU research and development support measures and, finally, to analyse whether national or international conditions are prevailing for a number of current development projects. The presentation is focused on the transshipment function, as shown in the simple system model presented in figure 1, regardless of whether it is terminal-based or integrated with a vehicle or a load carrier

Time perspectives on intermodal transport of consolidated cargo

Intermodal road-rail freight transport is often argued to have certain cost and time handicaps against all-road transport. Based on theory defining the elements transport time, order time, timing, punctuality and frequency, literature on modal choice is surveyed. With few exceptions, transport time and punctuality is top ranked, while frequency and timing is regarded as less important by respondents. Timing is excluded in some studies and order time is not found. The time elements are also used for comparing the characteristics of intermodal transport and all-road transport. Particular attention is paid to the preconditions for using intermodal transport as part of consolidation networks with subsequent terminal handlings. Since time aspects in transportation are highly contextual, the analysis is deepened within the framework of a case study focusing Schenker’s domestic transport services in Sweden. Schenker’s time requirements are matched against the times CargoNet, their main supplier of intermodal terminal-to-terminal services, can offer. It is concluded that correspondence of the transport time between the consolidation network and the intermodal network are in fact not a strong prerequisite to use intermodal transport, although correspondence of departure and arrival times is significantly higher for the intermodal relations regularly used by the logistics service provider. Regarding timing, adjusting departure and arrival times by one hour will not increase the competitiveness for the consolidated cargo significantly, more profound adjustments are required. The order time of the intermodal freight transport service is not well suited to consolidated cargo due to volume information unavailability. The consolidated cargo schedule is sensitive for rather small deviations in punctuality

Flexibility vs. specialisation in ro-ro shipping in the South Baltic Sea

The trade-off between flexibility and specialisation implies delicate tasks for transport system designers and marketing managers. The outcome of their efforts ranges from highly specialised solutions for a restricted number of users and types of cargoes to very open systems for common use adapted to accommodate a wide variety of transport demands. The purpose of this article is to adapt theories on openness and trade-offs, characterise a selection of flexible and specialised European short sea shipping concepts and analyse how substantial changes in the future character of the competition with road and rail can affect the development of ro-ro shipping in the South Baltic Sea. A matrix with commercial openness and technological openness on the axes is used for categorising sub-segments in the empirical context of the South Baltic Sea. Foreseeable changes in key cost and competition parameters until 2020 are taken into account in discussing potential scenarios. A plausible outcome for the ferry/ro-ro shipping segment is that a branch with slow services for unaccompanied freight will be diverted from the current homogenous market offerings. During the study, the Swedish Orient Line launched a service with these characteristics, which is analysed in a case study

The concept of the sustainable port – ports becoming enablers of sustainability in trans-ports and logistics

Global transportation is one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Portsplay an important role for the leap towards a more sustainable transport ecosystem. Overthe years, empowered by the Swedish innovation project I.Hamn, a concept for thesustainable port has been developed by the Swedish ports (see Appendix 1). This efforthas been financed by the Swedish Transport Administration’s industry programmeSustainable shipping managed by Lighthouse. The project is coordinated by the ResearchInstitutes of Sweden (RISE), and University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University ofTechnology are project partners.The result is a vision of the sustainable port, including a roadmap - developed togetherwith Lighthouse Focus group for Ports - supporting Swedish ports, in which the threepillars of sustainability have been addressed, i.e., economic, social, and environmentalsustainability.Globala transporter \ue4r en av de st\uf6rsta bidragsgivarna till utsl\ue4ppen av v\ue4xthusgaser. Hamnarna spelar en viktig roll f\uf6r spr\ue5nget mot ett mer h\ue5llbart transportekosystem. Genom insatser i innovationsprojektet I.Hamn har ett koncept f\uf6r den h\ue5llbara hamnen tagits fram av de svenska hamnarna (se Appendix 1). Satsningen har finansierats av Trafikverkets branschprogram H\ue5llbar sj\uf6fart som f\uf6rvaltas av Lighthouse. Projektet har koordinerats av Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE) tillsammans med G\uf6teborgs universitet och Chalmers tekniska h\uf6gskola.\ua0Resultatet \ue4r en vision om den h\ue5llbara hamnen, inklusive en f\ue4rdplan - framtagen tillsammans med Lighthouse Fokusgrupp Hamnar - som st\uf6djer svenska hamnar, d\ue4r de tre pelarna f\uf6r h\ue5llbarhet har tagits upp, det vill s\ue4ga ekonomisk, social och milj\uf6m\ue4ssig h\ue5llbarhet

Swedish shippers’ strategies for coping with slow-steaming in deep sea container shipping

When container shipping lines experience over-capacity and high fuel costs, they typically respond by decreasing sailing speeds and, consequently, increasing transport time. Most of the literature on this phenomenon, often referred to as slow-steaming, takes the perspective of the shipping lines addressing technical, operational and financial effects, or a society perspective focusing on lower emissions and energy use. Few studies investigate the effects on the demand side of the market for container liner shipping. Hence, the aim of this study is to elaborate on the logistics consequences of slow-steaming, particularly the strategies that Swedish shippers purchasing deep sea container transport services employ to mitigate the effects of slow-steaming. Workshops and semi-structured interviews revealed that shippers felt they had little or no impact on sailing schedules and were more or less subject to container shipping lines’ decisions. The effects of slow-steaming were obviously most severe for firms with complex supply chains, where intermediate products are sent back and forth between production stages on different continents. The shippers developed a set of strategies to cope with the low punctuality of containerised shipping, and these were categorised in the domains of transfer-the-problem, transport, sourcing and distribution, logistics and manufacturing, and product design. All firms applied changes in the transport domain, although the lack of service segmentation limited the effects of the strategy. Most measures were applied by two firms, whereas only one firm changed the product design

Slow Steaming as Part of SECA Compliance Strategies among RoRo and RoPax Shipping Companies

Many geographically peripheral member states of the EU are critically dependent on short sea Roll-on/Roll-off (RoRo) and mixed freight&ndash passenger (RoPax) shipping services for intra-European trade. The implementation of the Sulfur Emission Control Area (SECA) regulation was expected to raise the operating cost for RoRo and RoPax shipping, and slow steaming was proposed as an immediate solution to save the increased cost. Previous research has investigated the issue of slow steaming and SECA using a quantitative approach. However, the reaction of the RoRo and RoPax shipping firms toward slow steaming as a mitigating factor in the face of expected additional SECA compliance costs using qualitative methodology has not been explored yet. In addition, the knowledge regarding the impact of slow steaming on the competitiveness of short sea RoRo and RoPax with respect to service quality is limited. This article has addressed these issues through the analysis of multiple cases focusing on RoRo and RoPax firms operating in the North and Baltic Seas. Overall, our findings suggest that the 0.1% SECA regulation of 2015 requiring the use of higher-priced MGO has not caused slow steaming in the RoRo and RoPax segments to a large extent. The increased bunker prices are partially transferred to the customers via increased Bunker Adjustment Factor and partly borne by the shipowners. We have found that out of 11 case firms in our study only one RoRo and one RoPax firm have reduced vessel speeds to compensate for the additional SECA compliance costs. We conclude that for RoPax and RoRo segment bunker prices, rigorous competition and, most important, different service quality requirements have significantly restricted the potential implementation of slow steaming. Document type: Articl

Impact of including maritime transport in the EU ETS

https://commons.wmu.se/lib_reports/1088/thumbnail.jp

Future Logistics: What to Expect, How to Adapt

As a result of global societal and economic as well as technological developments logistics and supply chains face unprecedented challenges. Climate change, the need for more sustainable products and processes, major political changes, the advance of “Industry 4.0” and cyber-physical system are some of the challenges that require radical solutions, but also present major opportunities. The authors argue that logistics has to reinvent itself, not only to address these chal-lenges but also to cope with mass individualization on the one hand while exploit-ing broad-fielded business applications of artificial intelligence on the other hand. An essential challenge will be to find a compromise between these two develop-ments – in line and in combination with the known triple-bottom line for sustaina-bility – that will define supply chains and logistics concepts of the future

Multimodal, intermodal and terminals

The chapter looks at rail freight terminals, rail--sea interfaces, in particular, as part of a multimodal, or integrated transportation network. Terminals are key infrastructure for linking individual transport modes and governing and managing their interchange in a manner that creates a seamless and sustainable transportation system. Therefore, their performance is critical for maximising transport efficiency and modes integration. This chapter focused on how to measure the operational performance of rail freight terminals in a framework of integrated transportation network. In an increasingly competitive and commercialised world, there is an increasing demand to be able to rank transport options and routes in some way. Drawing on new material, this talk attempts to outline possible methods for how to measure the performance of rail terminals. It focuses on the identification of suitable methods to assess performance by key indicators. Intermodality demands for going beyond safeguarding the individual modes to ensuring the security of the intermodal inter-faces (terminals), the nodes that link and integrate passenger and freight flows. That demands for an integrated holistic approach built on the collaboration between international, national organisations and operators. The study put emphasis on the security challenges and threats to freight transport generally and in rail-sea interfaces more specifically. It moves onto the regulations already governing security in rail-sea interfaces. Finally, it focus on the role that infrastructure planning can play in improving security and offer some conclusions and recommendations for the futur