Information on Resource Utilisation for Operational Planning in Port Hinterland Transport

To meet increased freight flows through maritime ports, a high level of resource utilisation in hinterland transport is of crucial importance. However, various perspectives on resource utilisation create issues with use of information for operational decisions in port hinterland. The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of information related to resource utilisation for operational planning in port hinterland freight transport to facilitate its improvement. The study is case-based, and the data is collected through semi-structured interviews, visual observations, and company documents. The findings are analysed with a framework built from literature emphasising different resource utilisation perspectives and the use of information in road freight transport chain decisions. The findings show that the use of information on resource utilisation in operational freight transport decisions in the port hinterland transport system is limited and lacks a complete system overview. Instead of the information on measured parameters, different types of estimates of efficiency parameters (including resource utilisation) are commonly used for operational planning decisions. The information about the measured indicators has to be combined with other information to obtain an efficient level of resource utilisation; otherwise, it could generate incorrect assumptions regarding utilisation. The paper contributes to the topic of operational freight transport planning by describing the use of information on resource utilisation.

Strengthening the Collaborative Environment in Port-Hinterland Corridor Management Initiatives: A Value System Approach

With port competition now increasingly taking place on the landside, port actors have a genuine interest in enhancing their role and introducing improvements in the hinterland transport and logistics system. Among the different opportunities that are available, less attention has been placed on those that port–hinterland corridor management initiatives have to offer. These will be discussed herein, and a proposal is put forward for strengthening the collaborative environment in those initiatives, further reinforcing existing opportunities or creating new ones. More specifically, a value system approach is outlined and the steps for its development are sketched, putting forward value-oriented perspectives over the current performance-related ones. The proposed approach adds another useful dimension to the business thinking and decision-making of corridor members, enabling them to more holistically understand their respective roles and positioning and, in turn, further enhance collaboration among them, not just for improving performance but also, more importantly, for adding further value to the corridor. In the long term, this can result in greater benefits being realized for the corridor community as a whole.

Port Cooperation and Bundling: A Way to Reduce the External Costs of Hinterland Transport

The present paper studies the bundling of road cargo flows of neighbouring seaports to a common hinterland. In specific cases, some hinterland flows can be too small to make bundling in a sufficient frequency possible. By combining the road freight flows of neighbouring ports, this problem can be solved. However, the additional cost of bundling and the loss of time need to be compensated for by a lower transport cost. The paper presents an empirical model for the 104 core Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) ports of the European Union (EU) and their 271 NUTS2 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) hinterland regions that allows identifying opportunities for bundling as well as the direct and external cost effects. By including the value of time (VOT) of each transport mode, the generalised cost is also calculated. The result is a business model that helps port authorities, and other port actors, to identify bundling projects that will lower the direct, generalised and external costs of the hinterland connectivity, thus increasing the port attractiveness for port users as well as lowering potential aversion by the surrounding community to port operations that create hinterland nuisance.

Dry Port Terminal Location Selection by Applying the Hybrid Grey MCDM Model

Globalization and decentralization of production generate the intensive growth of goods and transport flows, mostly performed by the maritime transport. Ports, as the main nodes in the global logistics networks, are becoming congested, space for their expansion limited, and traffic in their hinterland congested. As a solution to these and many other hinterland-transport-related problems stands out the development of dry port (DP) terminals. Selection of their location is one of the most important strategic decisions on which depends their competitiveness in the market and the functionality of the logistics network. Accordingly, the evaluation and selection of locations for the development of the DP in accordance with the requirements of various stakeholders is performed in this paper, as a prerequisite for the establishment of an ecological, economic, and socially sustainable logistics network in the observed area. To solve this problem, a new hybrid model of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) that combines Delphi, AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process), and CODAS (Combinative Distance-based Assessment) methods in a grey environment is developed. The main contributions of this paper are the defined model, the problem-solving approach based on finding a compromise solution, simultaneous consideration of the environmental, economic, and social sustainability of the DP concept and its implementation in the regional international markets. The applicability of the approach and the defined MCDM model is demonstrated by solving a real-life case study of ranking the potential DP locations in the Western Balkans region. Based on the obtained results, it is concluded that in the current market conditions, it would be most realistic to open three DP terminals, in Zagreb, Ljubljana, and Belgrade.

Assessing the Potential Conflict Occurrence Due to Metropolitan Transportation Planning: A Proposed Quantitative Approach

Large urban settlements are being organized in metropolitan areas, with a polarizing city influencing and shaping the landscape of the hinterland. Transport infrastructure networks are the main vectors for the permanent flux of resources, and these exchanges should be maintained undisturbed. A poor transportation network impedes the continuity of these flows, causing unsatisfaction, ultimately generating planning-based conflicts within metropolitan zones. This study aims in assessing the potential occurrence of metropolitan conflicts generated by the transportation network design. We used a quantitative approach based on a set of new proposed indexes. The methods were applied on nine metropolitan zones from Romania. The results show that each metropolitan zone has specific potential for conflict occurrence. The higher potential was recorded within the more recent established metropolitan zones. Our results raise the question on whether the Romanian metropolitan zones are fully functional and worthy of this status. The study provides a useful and usable tool in assessing the effectiveness of the transportation networks within metropolitan areas, establishing the potential conflict occurrence and it provides interesting insights about the metropolitan transportation issues, raising red flags toward local and regional decision makers and planners.