Integrated Management of the Regional Container Transport System

Nowadays, regional container transport systems operate in the context of incomplete information and lack of integration of economic entities. Pursuance of personal economic gains by companies often leads to an imbalance in the development of regional terminal capacities, irrational empty container flows and a decreased efficiency of the regional container system in general. The present article proposes an approach to the integrated management of the regional container transport system based on the coordinated container flow distribution between terminals. This technology aims to increase the efficiency of the whole system, including due to the flow enlargement and the accelerated container trains formation. The approach involves the data sharing between cargo owners, terminals, the railway and resource owners on a digital logistics platform that forms logistics chains taking into account the transportation geography, infrastructure capacity and the interests of container market entities. The research presents a mathematical formalisation of the optimal container delivery chains by the time criterion, as well as a model of the integrated distribution of container flows between terminals. The model distributes the total container flow generated by a region between the existing terminal facilities in a way to minimise the total time of cargo delivery (taking into account the accumulation time of the full-length container block train at the terminal). The model, tested in the conditions of the container transport system in the Ural region, showed that an integrated management approach reduces the average container delivery time by 5 days due to the flow enlargement and regular container block trains. The effect size depends on the total regional container flow, as the larger number of requests for transportation to a certain destination leads to the accelerated formation of loaded container trains. The proposed technology is of economic interest for various participants of the container transport system. For cargo owners, it reduces the delivery time and, consequently, increases the capital turnover; for container owners, it accelerates the container turnover and reduces empty running; for terminals, it increases the throughput by reducing the accumulation time. To improve the model, it is planned to develop approaches for coordinating not only outgoing, but also incoming container flows between existing terminals.

Influence of Accessibility on Land Use and Landscape Pattern Based on Mapping Knowledge Domains: Review and Implications

Research on the influence of accessibility on land use and landscape patterns is one of the most important subfields in landscape ecology and transportation geography. In this review article, we use CiteSpace and VOSviewer to analyze relevant information, including the number of published papers, highly cited literature, high-frequency keywords, periodicals, and the leading countries conducting research on this particular field. Based on the mapping knowledge domain theory and summarizing method, this research, using an extensive review of the existing literature to analyze the influence of accessibility on land use and landscape patterns, the following conclusions have been reached: first, most of the relevant studies are conducted by applying theories on landscape ecology rather than on transportation geography, and the measure index of accessibility is relatively simple. Second, while accessibility has played a key role in analyzing the interactions between transportation, land use, and landscape patterns, studies on the long-term effect of transportation on land use and land patterns are extremely important. Also, different road types have been found to impose different effects. Third, research on the functional landscape in inner cities has become a significant research focus, particularly with the progress in big data. And fourth, improvements in data acquisition and processing have greatly benefited the field, specifically with recent advancements in GIS and RS technology. However, studies on landscape patterns with regional perspectives have largely been insufficient, especially those conducted over long time scales.

Transport Costs in a Shrinking World

Logistics is about reducing costs in freight transport and removing virtual (rather than physical) obstacles in the event. Reports dwell on the quest for efficiency and show ways to remove bottlenecks and costs. The reduction of these costs was instrumental to an ever increasing exchange notably of finished goods between the countries of the World. The cost elements of transportation de-pend on the nature of the goods to be transported as well as the topography, the distance to overcome and the modal choice. But day-to-day reality seems to paint a totally different picture to the economic analyst. Does it still make sense to apply or even study the theories of the classical and neo-classical transportation geography which allocate the spheres of production and of consumption according to costs in space. This paper dwells on two diverging opinions. The combination of two sets of models, one coming out of the classic methodologies and one from modern marketing concepts, leads to an explanative approach which reconciles both model builders and empirical analysts.