Shipping route choice across geographies: Coastal vs. landlocked countries

This paper investigates how geography and transportation costs influence the decisions by shippers of which port of export to use. Using a large sample of disaggregated shipments originating from several countries in Europe, we show that European logistics networks exhibit a low level of international integration that affects shipping route choice. Furthermore, we find significant differences in shipping behaviors across landlocked and coastal countries, with shippers in landlocked countries avoiding long land transportation, crossing borders readily, and placing more value on transportation infrastructure. These findings have implications in designing port competitiveness strategies and economic development policies in landlocked countries.     

The dry port concept: connecting container seaports with the hinterland

The dry port concept is based on a seaport directly connected by rail with inland intermodal terminals where containers can be dealt with in the same way as if they were in a seaport. The main purpose of the article is to extend the theory behind the dry port concept and to define three dry port categories; distant, midrange and close. The findings show that the dry port concept can help identify ways of shifting freight volumes from road to more energy efficient traffic modes that are less harmful to the environment, relieve seaport cities from some congestion and facilitate improved logistics solutions for shippers in the port’s hinterland.     

Choosing a port: An analysis of containerized imports into the US

Using a unique data set of individual shipments, port characteristics, and actual freight charges, we examined potential factors within management controls that affect the attractiveness of a port for containerized shipments. We hypothesized that the importance placed on each factor varies by the size of the shipper. We find support for our hypotheses that large shippers emphasize the factors affecting speed of delivery more than the freight charges compared to small shippers. These findings have managerial implications because investments in port development would pay off depending on the fit between the type of investment and the customers’ needs.     

Principles of micro-behavior commodity transport modeling

This paper presents an agent-based approach to commodity transport modeling. It assesses the effects of behavior-oriented transport policy measures while taking complex logistics reaction patterns into account. It is structured by modules describing company generation, supplier choice, shipment-size choice, carrier choice and tour construction. The behavior of individual actors is simulated using normative logistics models and accumulated market knowledge. Using a bottom-up approach, shippers and carriers interact through simulated auctions of transport contracts resulting in the generation of tours. Simulations using the model prototype INTERLOG calibrated with German data demonstrate the capabilities and limitations of this approach.     

A bilevel storage pricing model for outbound containers in a dry port system

Serving as a potential solution for seaport congestion and capacity limitation, dry port development is increasingly popular in the freight transport industry. This paper pioneers the research on dry port operations by modelling the storage pricing problem for outbound containers. The interaction between a dry port and multiple shippers is modelled as a bilevel program. The optimal properties of the proposed model under certain conditions are derived analytically, from which a closed-form solution is obtained. Contrary to intuition, the increase of container delivery frequency from shippers may lead to the reduction of dry port’s profit according to model outcomes.     

Challenging the shipper's location problem in port studies: An analysis of French AOC wine shipments to the US

One of the major issues in port choice and hinterland studies is the identification of the inland origins of containerized shipments. Firms' headquarters, intermediary cross-docking facilities, and the real places of origin of cargo are used interchangeably. This confusion may lead to a wrong perception of the factors affecting port choice decisions. This paper proposes a solution to overcome this problem, by focusing on shipments of French AOC wines (Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée) for which the geographical origin is strictly controlled. The paper also contributes to the port choice and hinterlands literatures by testing three new variables related to the logistical organization of shipments. A conditional logit model is employed to estimate the probability of choosing a port taking in account heterogeneity in the characteristics of shipments and decision makers. The results confirm the importance of inland distance and maritime connectivity, and bring new insight on the impact of logistical organization of shipments.     

Understanding hinterland service integration by shipping lines and terminal operators: a theoretical and empirical analysis

In the present competitive environment of ports, the key determinant in port competition is the ability of a port to be integrated into the local maritime and hinterland transportation chain. Creating effective integrated hinterland chains requires the coordination of several actors both in port and the hinterland. By making use of insights from Transaction Cost Economics and Resource-based View, the paper helps to understand why and how shipping lines and terminal operating companies enlarge their scope in intermodal transport and in inland terminals. The paper discusses a number of cases from the Hamburg–Le Havre range, where shipping lines and terminal operating companies have changed their scope of activities in ports and hinterland networks. After the theoretical and empirical analysis the papers draws conclusions on the explanatory power of the theories in understanding hinterland service integration by shipping lines and terminal operators.     

Concentration and the formation of multi-port gateway regions in the European container port system: an update

The European container port system features a unique blend of different port types and sizes combined with a vast economic hinterland. This paper provides an update of the detailed container traffic analysis developed by Notteboom (1997) by extending it to the period 1985–2008 and to 78 container ports. The paper also aims at identifying key trends and issues underlying recent developments in the European container port system. These trends include the formation of multi-port gateway regions, changes in the hinterland orientation of ports and port regionalization processes. While the local hinterland remains the backbone of ports’ traffic positions, a growing demand for routing flexibility fuels competition for distant hinterlands between multi-port gateway regions. The prevailing assumption that containerisation would lead to further port concentration is not a confirmed fact in Europe: the European port system and most of its multi-port gateway regions witness a gradual cargo deconcentration process. Still, the container handling market remains far more concentrated than other cargo handling segments in the European port system, as there are strong market-related factors supporting a relatively high cargo concentration level in the container sector.     

Service charge and capacity selection of an inland river port with location-dependent shipping cost and service congestion

The inland waterway transportation has attracted a lot of attention worldwide in the last fifteen years. This paper studies the location, service charge and capacity decision of an inland river port to maximize its revenue or profit. The cargo shippers are assumed to be uniformly distributed along the inland river and can be shipped to the junction port via pure road transportation service or transshipment service with the inland river port. The natural heterogeneity of the river’ navigational condition is modeled by a location-dependent waterway transportation cost and the service congestion on the port is captured by the M/M/1 queueing model. We analytically investigate the properties of the optimal solutions for various decision problems associated with the inland river port. The effects of the natural heterogeneity and port service congestion of those optimal solutions are investigated. Those theoretical results are carefully examined in the case study of the Yangtze River.     

Attributes driving the selection of trucking services and the quantification of the shipper’s willingness to pay

This paper investigates the selection of trucking services by shippers that require the movement of truck shipments. A set of pragmatic attributes are postulated to describe trucking services. They are used in a stated choice experiment that collects data and preferences from shippers. A mixed logit model is estimated in order to test the attributes and quantifying the shipper willingness to pay for them. The results are used to provide meaningful negotiation guidance for truck-related shippers and carriers, a significant contribution to literature in transportation, logistics, and supply chain management. A numerical example illustrates the use of the model.     

Hinterland operations of sea ports do matter: Dry port usage effects on transportation costs and CO2 emissions

Decreasing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions is one of the most important tasks for the society in the 21st century. One possibility to decrease emissions originating from transportation is to utilize more rails instead of relying simply on road transportation. In the dry port concept an inland intermodal terminal is connected to a sea port using railways. This study analyzes impacts of dry ports in a Finnish context. We compare two different configurations: In the first one shippers drive directly to a sea port, while in the second one they use dry ports. The systems are evaluated by using discrete-event simulation. In the systems we are interested in two issues: (1) Level of CO₂ emissions, and (2) Costs to transport the goods in different configurations. We use different scenarios for future energy prices and estimate both the costs and CO₂ emission development in these scenarios. We also compare the results to a situation, where emissions are minimized instead of costs. Implications on larger scale are also discussed, for example in the Baltic Sea and North Sea area, where strict sulfur emission restrictions are seen to harm sea transport and increase concentration on small number of sea ports.     

Container Ocean-transportation System Design with the factors of demand fluctuation and choice inertia of shippers

This paper introduces an optimization model (COSDM) for a Container Ocean-transportation System with the objective of maximizing the revenue of a liner company while taking into account the seasonal fluctuation in transportation demand and the choice inertia of shippers. The COSDM optimizes shipping network design and fleet deployment simultaneously, and it optimizes plans for changing the shipping network and for distributing slots in ships based on the fluctuation in demand and the characteristics of the shippers’ choice inertia. To solve COSDM, a heuristic algorithm is created that combines Genetic Algorithm and Simplex Method. The results show that the COSDM gives an optimized design scheme of the system that takes into account the stability of transportation services and improves the user experience of shippers while increasing the revenue of the liner company. Moreover, the results also reveal new explanations for the increasing size of container ships.     

Attribute cut-offs in freight service selection

The paper applies the choice model incorporating attribute cut-offs proposed by [Swait, J.D., 2001. A non-compensatory choice model incorporating attribute cutoffs. Transportation Research: Part B 35 (10), 903–928] to evaluate shippers’ preferences for freight service attributes. A stated preference experiment on a sample of Italian manufacturing firms shows that the marginal utilities of attributes are not constant over the whole range of values presented, and that significant improvements can be made by introducing non-linearities at points specified by individual respondents. It is found that the conventional model overestimates the importance of the attributes, though their relative ranking is maintained. The proposed choice model provides useful information on the difficulty of achieving a modal transfer of freight from road to truck-rail intermodal transport.     

Recent maritime research projects on the Lower Loire area

This paper deals with the problems of access to an estuary port, the security of navigation and services such as towage provided for shipping. The port triptych is also considered — the port itself, its foreland and hinterland — showing to what extent the port can be seen as a fundamental feature of the regional economy.     

An empirical test of modal choice and allocative efficiency: Evidence from US coal transportation

A generalized shipper transportation cost function is estimated to test whether coal shippers achieve allocative efficiency with respect to market prices when facing limited access to the full range of transportation services. Findings indicate that allocative efficiency with respect to market prices is achieved when shippers have access to all major transportation modes. In contrast, the condition for allocative efficiency is not met with respect to market prices when shippers’ modal choices are limited to trucking and rail services. Findings for the sample of shippers who face limited shipping choices is interpreted as suggesting an over-use of trucks relative to the use of trains due to price distortions of transportation services.     

Opportunities to improve container barge handling in the port of Rotterdam from a transport network perspective

This paper presents and evaluates an opportunity to improve the competitiveness of container barge transport in the hinterland of Rotterdam through a reorganization of container barge services. This reorganization improves the handling of barges in the port and consists of splitting existing services into a trunk line operation in the hinterland and collection/distribution operations in the seaport. A marginal cost model is used to demonstrate the potential net benefits of these revised services. The main conclusion is that these split services can improve the competitiveness of barge hinterland transport, but the effectiveness depends on several conditions. These conditions are first of all related to the design and organization of collection and distribution transport, but also to the characteristics of the trunk line operation in the hinterland.     

盘锦港及后方铁路通道运能优势分析

盘锦港是辽宁沿海“十二五”规划扩建的贸易港口,以散杂货、石油、集装箱等运输为主,是东北腹地距离最近的下海口。结合沈阳铁路局路网规划和相邻港口铁路运能情况,阐述了盘锦港后方铁路在运输能力和运输径路灵活、发达的特点,盘锦港及后方铁路通道能力富余,发展空间广阔：分析盘锦港的吸引范围,并对盘锦港主要承担的大宗货物品类的运量进行预测,认为盘锦港及后方铁路通道在运输距离和运输费用上优于相邻其他港口,具有潜在优势。     

Port connectivity in a logistic network: The case of Bohai Bay,China

While traditional port literature uses origin and destination pairs in global shipping networks, recent developments of dry ports in the hinterland, feeder service networks, and heavy foreign trade traffic make the ports in Bohai Bay a unique case in the analysis of inter-port connectivity and competitiveness. Using an integrated port connectivity index to define the above features, the advantages and challenges of individual ports can be assessed in a dynamic interconnected environment. The model can provide unbiased port development strategies for each port to ensure long-term sustainability.     

Port choice and freight forwarders

In light of the growing supply chain power of 3PLs and very limited empirical studies on port choice from the freight forwarders’ perspective, this paper tries to evaluate the major factors influencing port choice from the Southeast Asian freight forwarders’ perspective, their decision-making style and port selection process and draw out some policy implications for port operators and authorities. Efficiency is found to be the most important factor followed by shipping frequency, adequate infrastructure and location. Their selection process is complex and a two-stage process and supports the new approach that models ports within the framework of a supply chain.     

The spatial characteristics of inland transport hubs: evidences from Southern India

This paper investigates the spatial characteristics of inland transport hubs with evidence from the users’ choice of dry ports in cargo exportation in Southern India. The findings indicate that the current solution, where shippers often choose dry ports located closest to their production base, is not the optimal solution in terms of the minimisation of transport cost, mainly due to government policies and dry port’s inability in providing value-added services to shippers. This study provides important insight on the major attributes in explaining the spatial characteristics of inland transport hubs, especially in developing countries.