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Intermodal freight transport management
RTBM-00288; No of Pages 2 Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (2017) xxx–xxx
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Research in Transportation Business & Management
Intermodal freight transport management
1. Introduction This Themed Volume comprises papers from the session track on Intermodal Freight Transport held at the 14th World Conference on Transport Research (WCTR) in Shanghai in July 2016 supplemented by additional papers. This Themed Volume seeks to extend the knowledge on intermodality and highlight the management and decision aspects within the scientific literature. Bontekoning, Macharis, and Trip (2004) found that at that time, intermodal freight transport research had only emerged as a field within transport research with scientific publication intensifying significantly. A dozen years later, it is now an important topic at transport and logistics conferences and has been the subject of several journal special issues, as this one is. Articles, theses and reports rarely start by defining intermodal freight transport, which was more or less compulsory for early works which is a clear indication of a research field that has matured. In Research in Transportation Business & Management, two previous Themed Volumes have been devoted to intermodal freight transport and some further 50 articles published in the subject area. Both Volume 5 (Browne, Woodburn, & Woxenius, 2012) and Volume 14 (Monios & Bergqvist, 2015) included articles in the broad field of intermodal transport research and Volume 19 on Port Competitiveness (Meersman, Van de Voorde, & Vanelslander, 2012), included articles addressing modal transfer. Topics dealt with in these Volumes include network design, transport service provision, market analysis and policy and governance evaluation. Articles in this Research in Transportation Business & Management Volume address a variety of managerial aspects of intermodal transport. 2. Volume articles A session track on intermodal freight transport was organised at the 14th WCTR in Shanghai in July 2016. Seven of the 11 articles published in this Themed Volume were initially presented at the 14th WCTR and two more are significantly updated and improved versions of papers presented at corresponding session tracks at the 12th (Lisbon 2010) and 13th (Rio de Janeiro 2013) WCTRs. In addition, a call for papers resulted in two accepted papers. The topics covered in the articles can be divided into five themes, being: analysis of the transport market; modal choice; transport costs; externalities and the effects of climate change; and terminal operations. A first series of articles deal with studies of the intermodal transport market. The article by de Langen, Lases Figueroa, van Donselaar and Bozuwa analyses the European intermodal service offer, employing an extensive dataset with national and border-crossing rail and barge connections. Their analysis shows the complementarity of both transport
modes and explores the relation between transport distance, frequency and transport quality properties. Also focusing on the intermodal market, Saeedi, Wiegmans, Behdani and Zuidwijk develop a model to analyse the market structure of intermodal networks. Their model allows assessment of the effects of horizontal or vertical business integration on market concentration. The article by Flodén and Woxenius, finally, takes the deregulation of the Swedish railway sector as its starting point and presents a case study focusing on recent market developments in the sub-sector of intermodal freight. The majority of intermodal transport research focuses on the modelling of intermodal systems and therefore it is not common for the research to focus on qualitative case studies at the micro economic level, in this instance analysing the withdrawal of the main intermodal rail provider on the market. The article takes a narrative approach and discusses the links between the business models of the relevant transport providers and the changing market characteristics. A second stream of articles deals with aspects that influence transport buyers' decisions. Insight into the reasons behind modal choice is vital for understanding the transport market, in designing competitive transport services and in triggering a politically desired modal shift towards intermodal transport. Flodén, Bärthel and Sorkina review the relevant literature and find that these modal choice criteria can be divided into three levels: cost, qualifiers and particularities. The authors conclude that most of the decisions are made based on price, but only after ensuring that the basic transport quality requirements are met, while particularities such as the environmental impact of a transport service have little impact on modal choice. The article of Meers, Macharis, Vermeiren and van Lier builds on this body of literature and discusses the modal choice determinants for short-distance container transport in Belgium. Their research supports the notion that reliable transport services are required before intermodal alternatives are considered, even when they are price-competitive. The authors also find that an information gap is still to be overcome, requiring to correctly inform decision-makers on the (quality of) available intermodal services. A third topic dealt with in this Themed Volume is that of transport costs, one of the key modal choice criteria. Winebrake and Green focus on the transport cost in the US medium- and heavy-duty vehicles market. They research whether reduced transport costs, as a consequence of new technologies and policies, have an effect on vehicle energy consumption. The authors find that direct rebound effects are likely to be negligible and also indirect rebound effects may also be small. Al Enezy, van Hassel, Sys and Vanelslander focus on the cost aspect of inland waterway transport operations. They develop a model to calculate the cost of an inland navigation transport service, in order to set competitive and profitable prices. The authors argue that following the heterogeneity of the sector, it is recommended to use company-specific data, as average values can only be used for benchmarking purposes.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2017.02.013 2210-5395/Crown Copyright © 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article as: Woxenius, J., et al., Intermodal freight transport management, Research in Transportation Business & Management (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2017.02.013
2
Intermodal freight transport management
Fig. 1. Topics and geographical focus of the included articles.
Besides transport costs, a fourth topic dealt with in this Volume is transport externalities and climate change effects, again in relation to the modal choice. Flodén, Bärthel and Sorkina already point out the limited importance of environmental criteria in modal choice decisions, but their importance can be substantially increased given the interest to internalise (some) externalities in the transport cost through pricing policies and the increasing importance attached to designing resilient transport systems in an era of changing climate. Mostert, Caris and Limbourg focus on the issue of air pollution. Like Meers, Macharis, Vermeiren and van Lier, they present a case study, focusing on intermodal transport in Belgium. The authors analyse the effects of several economic and environmental policies on the modal split of freight transport. Their analysis shows that policies directed towards the minimisation of external transport costs could completely reverse the current modal split. The case study of Du, Kim and Zheng focuses on climate change impacts on the freight transport system in Canada's Northwest Territories. Particularly the greater variability in water level conditions impacts the potential usage of barge transport and the unpredictability complicates the transport planning. The authors model the effects on modal choice, waterway capacity and transport system performance. Finally, they discuss how policy makers and transport operators can better plan taking account of these changes. A final topic discussed in this Themed Volume relates to the transhipment terminals as nodes in intermodal transport networks. The research of Monios and Bergqvist focuses on the marketing aspect of intermodal terminal development. Dividing the life cycle of terminals into four distinct phases, the authors identify the most appropriate competitive strategies to be developed. It proves important to anticipate future strategies and to build partnerships with operators, third party logistics providers and shippers to obtain competitive advantages. The final article in the Themed Volume, by Jacobsson, Arnäs and Stefansson, concentrates on operational issues related to information exchange between terminals and hauliers. The authors present a comprehensive compilation of information attributes in an analytical framework. Fig. 1 Depicts the thematic focus, geographical focus and connections between the articles in a slightly different way than the topics identified above. 3. What's next for research on intermodal freight transport? This Themed Volume provides opportunities to help businesses and policy makers in designing competitive and resilient intermodal transport systems and an environment that stimulates the consideration of these sometimes overlooked alternatives to all-road freight transport. Next, we intend to foster further research on the topics
elaborated in this Themed Volume, but also on new topics such as the integration of intermodal transport and last mile logistics, ICT innovations and synchromodality and cooperation. Finally, we would like to stress the need for more qualitative research in this field which is still dominated by quantitative research. The volume editors would like to conclude by thanking the authors for their contributions, the reviewers for their efforts and valuable advice on the papers and to the editors of Research in Transportation Business & Management for their support. References Bontekoning, Y. M., Macharis, C., & Trip, J. J. (2004). Is a new applied transportation research field emerging? — A review of intermodal rail-truck freight transport literature. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 38(1), 1–34. Browne, M., Woodburn, A., & Woxenius, J. (2012). Logistics and intermodal transport. Editorial to themed volume in research in transportation business & management. 5. (pp. 1–3). Meersman, H., Van de Voorde, E., & Vanelslander, T. (2012). Port competitiveness now and in the future: What are the issues and challenges? Editorial to themed volume in research in transportation business & management. 19. (pp. 1–3). Monios, J., & Bergqvist, R. (2015). Operational constraints on effective governance of intermodal transport. Editorial to themed volume in research in transportation business & management. 14. (pp. 1–3).
Johan Woxenius University of Gothenburg, Department of Business Administration, School of Business, Economics and Law at University of Gothenburg, Box 610, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected]. Cathy Macharis Dries Meers Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Mobility, Logistics and Automotive Technology Research Centre, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium E-mail addresses: [email protected] (C. Macharis), [email protected] (D. Meers). Allan Woodburn University of Westminster Transport Studies Group, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS, UK E-mail address: [email protected].
Available online xxxx
Please cite this article as: Woxenius, J., et al., Intermodal freight transport management, Research in Transportation Business & Management (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2017.02.013
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Research in Transportation Business & Management
Intermodal freight transport management
1. Introduction This Themed Volume comprises papers from the session track on Intermodal Freight Transport held at the 14th World Conference on Transport Research (WCTR) in Shanghai in July 2016 supplemented by additional papers. This Themed Volume seeks to extend the knowledge on intermodality and highlight the management and decision aspects within the scientific literature. Bontekoning, Macharis, and Trip (2004) found that at that time, intermodal freight transport research had only emerged as a field within transport research with scientific publication intensifying significantly. A dozen years later, it is now an important topic at transport and logistics conferences and has been the subject of several journal special issues, as this one is. Articles, theses and reports rarely start by defining intermodal freight transport, which was more or less compulsory for early works which is a clear indication of a research field that has matured. In Research in Transportation Business & Management, two previous Themed Volumes have been devoted to intermodal freight transport and some further 50 articles published in the subject area. Both Volume 5 (Browne, Woodburn, & Woxenius, 2012) and Volume 14 (Monios & Bergqvist, 2015) included articles in the broad field of intermodal transport research and Volume 19 on Port Competitiveness (Meersman, Van de Voorde, & Vanelslander, 2012), included articles addressing modal transfer. Topics dealt with in these Volumes include network design, transport service provision, market analysis and policy and governance evaluation. Articles in this Research in Transportation Business & Management Volume address a variety of managerial aspects of intermodal transport. 2. Volume articles A session track on intermodal freight transport was organised at the 14th WCTR in Shanghai in July 2016. Seven of the 11 articles published in this Themed Volume were initially presented at the 14th WCTR and two more are significantly updated and improved versions of papers presented at corresponding session tracks at the 12th (Lisbon 2010) and 13th (Rio de Janeiro 2013) WCTRs. In addition, a call for papers resulted in two accepted papers. The topics covered in the articles can be divided into five themes, being: analysis of the transport market; modal choice; transport costs; externalities and the effects of climate change; and terminal operations. A first series of articles deal with studies of the intermodal transport market. The article by de Langen, Lases Figueroa, van Donselaar and Bozuwa analyses the European intermodal service offer, employing an extensive dataset with national and border-crossing rail and barge connections. Their analysis shows the complementarity of both transport
modes and explores the relation between transport distance, frequency and transport quality properties. Also focusing on the intermodal market, Saeedi, Wiegmans, Behdani and Zuidwijk develop a model to analyse the market structure of intermodal networks. Their model allows assessment of the effects of horizontal or vertical business integration on market concentration. The article by Flodén and Woxenius, finally, takes the deregulation of the Swedish railway sector as its starting point and presents a case study focusing on recent market developments in the sub-sector of intermodal freight. The majority of intermodal transport research focuses on the modelling of intermodal systems and therefore it is not common for the research to focus on qualitative case studies at the micro economic level, in this instance analysing the withdrawal of the main intermodal rail provider on the market. The article takes a narrative approach and discusses the links between the business models of the relevant transport providers and the changing market characteristics. A second stream of articles deals with aspects that influence transport buyers' decisions. Insight into the reasons behind modal choice is vital for understanding the transport market, in designing competitive transport services and in triggering a politically desired modal shift towards intermodal transport. Flodén, Bärthel and Sorkina review the relevant literature and find that these modal choice criteria can be divided into three levels: cost, qualifiers and particularities. The authors conclude that most of the decisions are made based on price, but only after ensuring that the basic transport quality requirements are met, while particularities such as the environmental impact of a transport service have little impact on modal choice. The article of Meers, Macharis, Vermeiren and van Lier builds on this body of literature and discusses the modal choice determinants for short-distance container transport in Belgium. Their research supports the notion that reliable transport services are required before intermodal alternatives are considered, even when they are price-competitive. The authors also find that an information gap is still to be overcome, requiring to correctly inform decision-makers on the (quality of) available intermodal services. A third topic dealt with in this Themed Volume is that of transport costs, one of the key modal choice criteria. Winebrake and Green focus on the transport cost in the US medium- and heavy-duty vehicles market. They research whether reduced transport costs, as a consequence of new technologies and policies, have an effect on vehicle energy consumption. The authors find that direct rebound effects are likely to be negligible and also indirect rebound effects may also be small. Al Enezy, van Hassel, Sys and Vanelslander focus on the cost aspect of inland waterway transport operations. They develop a model to calculate the cost of an inland navigation transport service, in order to set competitive and profitable prices. The authors argue that following the heterogeneity of the sector, it is recommended to use company-specific data, as average values can only be used for benchmarking purposes.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2017.02.013 2210-5395/Crown Copyright © 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article as: Woxenius, J., et al., Intermodal freight transport management, Research in Transportation Business & Management (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2017.02.013
2
Intermodal freight transport management
Fig. 1. Topics and geographical focus of the included articles.
Besides transport costs, a fourth topic dealt with in this Volume is transport externalities and climate change effects, again in relation to the modal choice. Flodén, Bärthel and Sorkina already point out the limited importance of environmental criteria in modal choice decisions, but their importance can be substantially increased given the interest to internalise (some) externalities in the transport cost through pricing policies and the increasing importance attached to designing resilient transport systems in an era of changing climate. Mostert, Caris and Limbourg focus on the issue of air pollution. Like Meers, Macharis, Vermeiren and van Lier, they present a case study, focusing on intermodal transport in Belgium. The authors analyse the effects of several economic and environmental policies on the modal split of freight transport. Their analysis shows that policies directed towards the minimisation of external transport costs could completely reverse the current modal split. The case study of Du, Kim and Zheng focuses on climate change impacts on the freight transport system in Canada's Northwest Territories. Particularly the greater variability in water level conditions impacts the potential usage of barge transport and the unpredictability complicates the transport planning. The authors model the effects on modal choice, waterway capacity and transport system performance. Finally, they discuss how policy makers and transport operators can better plan taking account of these changes. A final topic discussed in this Themed Volume relates to the transhipment terminals as nodes in intermodal transport networks. The research of Monios and Bergqvist focuses on the marketing aspect of intermodal terminal development. Dividing the life cycle of terminals into four distinct phases, the authors identify the most appropriate competitive strategies to be developed. It proves important to anticipate future strategies and to build partnerships with operators, third party logistics providers and shippers to obtain competitive advantages. The final article in the Themed Volume, by Jacobsson, Arnäs and Stefansson, concentrates on operational issues related to information exchange between terminals and hauliers. The authors present a comprehensive compilation of information attributes in an analytical framework. Fig. 1 Depicts the thematic focus, geographical focus and connections between the articles in a slightly different way than the topics identified above. 3. What's next for research on intermodal freight transport? This Themed Volume provides opportunities to help businesses and policy makers in designing competitive and resilient intermodal transport systems and an environment that stimulates the consideration of these sometimes overlooked alternatives to all-road freight transport. Next, we intend to foster further research on the topics
elaborated in this Themed Volume, but also on new topics such as the integration of intermodal transport and last mile logistics, ICT innovations and synchromodality and cooperation. Finally, we would like to stress the need for more qualitative research in this field which is still dominated by quantitative research. The volume editors would like to conclude by thanking the authors for their contributions, the reviewers for their efforts and valuable advice on the papers and to the editors of Research in Transportation Business & Management for their support. References Bontekoning, Y. M., Macharis, C., & Trip, J. J. (2004). Is a new applied transportation research field emerging? — A review of intermodal rail-truck freight transport literature. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 38(1), 1–34. Browne, M., Woodburn, A., & Woxenius, J. (2012). Logistics and intermodal transport. Editorial to themed volume in research in transportation business & management. 5. (pp. 1–3). Meersman, H., Van de Voorde, E., & Vanelslander, T. (2012). Port competitiveness now and in the future: What are the issues and challenges? Editorial to themed volume in research in transportation business & management. 19. (pp. 1–3). Monios, J., & Bergqvist, R. (2015). Operational constraints on effective governance of intermodal transport. Editorial to themed volume in research in transportation business & management. 14. (pp. 1–3).
Johan Woxenius University of Gothenburg, Department of Business Administration, School of Business, Economics and Law at University of Gothenburg, Box 610, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected]. Cathy Macharis Dries Meers Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Mobility, Logistics and Automotive Technology Research Centre, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium E-mail addresses: [email protected] (C. Macharis), [email protected] (D. Meers). Allan Woodburn University of Westminster Transport Studies Group, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS, UK E-mail address: [email protected].
Available online xxxx
Please cite this article as: Woxenius, J., et al., Intermodal freight transport management, Research in Transportation Business & Management (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2017.02.013