Cold Chain Strategies for Seaports

The refrigerated (‘reefer’) container market and cold logistics chains creates opportunities as well as challenges for seaports. This high-value market grows rapidly, but places stringent demands on seaports’ logistics processes, infrastructure, and energy provision. This study addresses the question how port authorities address the challenges and in this dynamic market environment. While previous research has outlined developments in port governance paradigms and the strategic scope of port authorities, the academic literature still lacks a comprehensive understanding of the policy options available to port authorities to respond to arising challenges and opportunities. To provide this missing understanding, this study presents a new dataset of policies, implemented by world’s 50 largest container ports, addressing reefer transportation and cold chain logistics. Policy measures are classified according to content, goals and scope. The findings from this worldwide comparative analysis illustrate that port authorities often pursue policies extending far beyond their traditional ‘landlord’ responsibility. Most commonly still, the scope of port policy is limited to the port cluster, where ports (co)-invest in or aim for cluster formation around cold stores. When a port extends its strategic scope towards its foreland or hinterland, this is usually aligned with policy goals formulated at higher levels of governance, such as modal shift goals or the development of domestic post-harvest distribution systems. There is however little evidence of coherent and comprehensive cold chain strategies, addressing the logistics, marketing, technology, and sustainability dimensions. The paper outlines the general tenets such a strategy should contain as a consideration for policymakers

Divergent effects of container port choice incentives on users' behavior

Port choice decisions are often considered to be based on unambiguous choice criteria. The authors examine how port users' evaluation of these criteria can differ and how this may affect actors' incentive structure and decision making, and ultimately port performance. Apart from ports' physical characteristics, the paper considers port policy and freight market conditions as components of actors' incentive structures. As port users interact, each actor's decision making has consequences for the incentives offered to others – with an important role for strategic behavior. The aggregate of port users' decisions affects a port's throughput, cargo composition, and value added, and has implications for handling efficiency. This paper combines these insights within an overarching framework linking port characteristics, policy, and freight market conditions to port user choice behavior and the consequences for ports. The paper explores various facets of this framework using the case of how the Port of Rotterdam competes along the Hamburg–Le Havre range, drawing on port throughput data on various levels of detail and in-depth interviews with a representative selection of port stakeholders. It shows that there is a downside to ports being particularly attractive to carriers, in that the port that offers the most incentives to carriers disproportionately attracts relatively low-value activities: inefficient calls and a large share of empty containers, along with a strong import/export imbalance. Interview findings contextualize the findings from the data and elaborate further on the mechanisms underpinning these observations. Most importantly, the attractiveness of a port for carriers does not always translate into attractiveness for shippers. The challenge for port policy is to balance the port's positioning toward its different categories of users and achieve a congruent value proposition for all port users

Identifying Dominant Stakeholder Perspectives on Sustainability Issues in Reefer Transportation

Driven by global climate concerns, seaports have formulated sustainability goals, which also require sustainability gains in the fast growing temperature-controlled logistics market—increasing energy e ciency, reducing waste, and streamlining logistics processes. This, however, requires cooperation and buy-in from a wide range of stakeholders. To explore the barriers and facilitators of such a transition, we map the interests and attitudes of cold chain actors in the Port of Rotterdam regarding sustainability issues in reefer transportation and cold chains. We identify a limited number of broadly shared perspectives using Q-methodology—a survey-based method to study subjective viewpoints (originating from psychology) that has been used only rarely in the freight transport field. The analysis yields four ‘dominant’ perspectives that together account for 46% of the variation among stakeholder viewpoints. We label these perspectives “sustainability as part of strategy”, “short term constraints”, “optimistic about technology, limited role for policy”, and “long run willingness under risk avoidance.” These perspectives are characterized by multiple factors, including the evaluation of organizational capabilities, expectations from policymakers and technology, and the time horizon stakeholder organizations consider regarding sustainability concerns. From the findings, we derive recommendations for managers and policy makers to facilitate stakeholder dialogue and possibly convergence and coalition building

Stakeholders' roles for Business Modelling in a City Logistics ecosystem: towards a conceptual model

A major challenge associated with the implementation of CL initiatives lies with their economic and financial long-term success. In this context, the business model concept can support assessing the business side of stakeholders' decision-making processes as major determinants for such success. The purpose of this work is to overcome the shortcomings of the business model approach applied to CL systems. To this end, a conceptual model is built from a role-based business ecosystem modelling approach to provide a business model representation of the CL business ecosystem, able to identify and explore the components of the system and their dynamics

Knowledge of Real Time Position of Vehicles and Its Impact on the Improvement of Intermodal Drayage Operations

Libro de abstracts en la web del congreso: http://www.civil.ist.utl.pt/wctr12_lisboa/int_04_program_conference.htmThe intermodal transport chain can become more efficient by means of a good organization of the drayage movements. Drayage in intermodal container terminals involves the pick up or delivery of containers at customer locations. There are some works on centralised drayage management, but most of them consider the problem only from a static and deterministic perspective. The main objective is normally the assignment of transportation tasks to the different vehicles, often with the presence of time windows. The work we present here considers the knowledge of the vehicles’ real-time position, which permanently enables the planner to reassign tasks in case the problem conditions change. This exact knowledge of position of the vehicles is possible thanks to a geographic positioning system by satellite (GPS, Galileo, Glonass). This additional data are used to dynamically improve the solution

The reefer container market and academic research: A review study

The refrigerated (or ‘reefer’) container market grows rapidly. Researchers and sector stakeholders increasingly realize that this container market segment has its distinct dynamics and demands. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the reefer container sector, its most important characteristics and trends, and a systematic review of the academic literature on reefer containers and logistics. First the authors outline the characteristics, composition, and development of the reefer container market, showing its growth through modal shift (from conventional reefer ships and airfreight) and differentiation into new cargo markets and niche services. Secondly the authors outline reefer chains in terms of their relevant stages, stakeholders, and processes. Data on insurance claims shows that cold chain failure and cargo loss not only occur due to technical failures, but just as often due to organizational errors – especially due to hold-up risk at container transfer points. Thirdly the authors map the present knowledge on reefer containers and reefer transportation through a systematic literature review. The current body of research on reefer containers consists mostly of highly specialized, technical studies on product characteristics and quality preservation, monitoring and control, refrigeration technology, and temperature management. While technological advances in these fields have largely enabled the containerization of cold logistics chains, the first sections of this paper also highlight that many current pressing issues in reefer transportation are logistical and organizational in nature. Therefore, the authors propose a research agenda addressing these overlooked aspects, including supply chain coordination issues and implications of reefer market developments for port policy

The ostensible tension between competition and cooperation in ports

Strategic alliances in the container shipping sector, and requirements imposed by consolidated hinterland modalities such as trains and barges, have resulted in container terminals facing increasing pressures to cooperate to handle increasingly intertwined container flows. However, concession agreements and market conditions often also pressure terminals to compete. This paper aims to help understand how pressures for competition and cooperation conflict, what problems this causes, what drives these tensions, and how these can be resolved. The drivers of port competitiveness are generally conceptualized as straightforward criteria related to costs, efficiency, location, and infrastructure. Because of the focus on these ‘hard’, quantifiable factors, the qualitative relational underpinnings of port performance are often overlooked. This paper explores how inter-organizational relations function as a major underpinning of port performance and competitiveness. Interviews with a representative selection of stakeholders in the Port of Rotterdam reveal the problems that can occur when cooperation between terminals is under pressure. These problems relate to deficiencies in inter-organizational relationships, which do not tend to arise spontaneously in a competitive context. This paper provides a framework that helps understand how firms can simultaneously balance pressures for competition and imperatives for cross-firm integration and cooperation. Several technical and organizational solutions are suggested, but effective implementation depends on various tacit factors – including trust, shared values, and a sense of community – that determine stakeholders’ willingness to commit and cooperate

Teaching a Roadmap towards Synchromodal Transport

Transport and Logistic

Slim bewegen tussen haven en stad

Wat moet de havenstad Rotterdam gaan doen met alle toekomstige kansen en bedreigingen? Welke disruptieve veranderingen zijn bij uitstek geschikt voor de haven- en stadsontwikkeling en welke ontwikkelingen zien wij op ons afkomen? Op welke manier kunnen we daar op inspelen met het onderzoek en het onderwijs? Welke nieuwe kennis op het gebied van verandermanagement,informatica en logistiek is nodig om als logisticus van de toekomst goed te kunnen blijven anticiperen op innovaties?Ron van Duin, lector Haven- & Stadslogistiek, gaat in zijn openbare les opzoek naar duurzame logistieke verbeteringen in de havenstad met inzet van nieuwe, slimme (ICT-)techniek. Met behulp van een uitgewerkte SWOT(Strength/Weakness/Oppurtunities/Threads)-analyse definieert hij devolgende onderzoeksvoorstellen, inzet van synchromodaliteit ter verbetering van het container transport, inzet Lichte Elektrische VrachtVoertuigen in the last mile, inzet van Blockchain technologie voorde CO2-footprint van producten, bouwlogistiek en de inzet van het Bouw Informatie Model ter verbetering van de ketenefficiëntie, Internet of Things toepassing in avocado ketens, energiereductie in koeltransport en integratie van het magazijn van de toekomst.Het brede scala van onderzoeksvoorstellen moet bijdragen aan het ontwikkelen van nieuwe kenniscompetenties in de curricula van de drie logistieke opleidingen Logistics Engineering, Logistiek & Economie en International Business and Management Studies van Hogeschool Rotterdam.Het lectoraat Haven & Stadslogistiek is ingebed bij Kenniscentrum Duurzame Havenstad en Center of Expertise RDM van Hogeschool Rotterdam.Ron studeerde bedrijfseconometrie aan de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (1982–1988). Na zijn afstuderen werkte hij als Operations Researcher bij FEL-TNO, bij VBF Buizen, later starte hij zijn eigen bedrijf en was hij parttime docent voor ISW-opleidingen en de Hogere Krijgsschool. In 1994 startte Ron als universitair docent logistiek bij de Faculteit Techniek Bestuur & Management van de TU Delft. In 2012 promoveerde hij aan de TU Delft op het proefschrift dat handelt over logistieke conceptontwikkeling in een multi-actoromgeving. Momenteel gaat zijn aandacht uit naar onderzoek rond modelontwikkeling op het gebied van havens, intermodaal vervoer en stadslogistiek. Verder is Ron lid van de redactie van meerdere internationale tijdschriften, lid van de Raad voor Logistieke Kennis, lid van de Standing Committee Urban Freight Transport en de Intermodal Freight Transport Committee van de Transportation Research Board. Sinds de oprichting in 1998 is Ron actief betrokken bij het Institute of City Logistics. Ron heeft altijd met veel enthousiasme logistieke afstudeerders begeleid (meer dan tweehonderd!) en heeft meer dan honderd publicaties op zijn naam staan. In zijn vrije tijd is Ron graag in zijn Millingen a/d Rijn. Het karakteristieke dorpje aan de Rijn heeft zijn hart gestolen. De rust, de vriendelijkheid van de mensen en de geweldige natuur zorgen ervoor dat hij zich in de weekeinden goed kan ontspannen voordat de drukke week met twee uitdagende banen weer begint. Het ontspannen doet hij graag met Marjolein, met wie hij de natuur in trekt voor een wandeling of hardlopend door de polder of met wie lekker in de moestuin bezig is met al het groen. Zelf speelt hij graag badminton en kijkt met veel plezier naar de voetbalprestaties van zijn drie zoons en naar zijn dochter die zich bezighoudt met allerlei vormen van dans. Lekker kokkerellen en tafelen met zijn vrienden doet Ron ook graag. Volgens Ron is balans houden tussen werk en vrije tijd essentieel om goed te kunnen functioneren.Transport and Logistic