3 - Cross-border logistics practices, policies, and its impact

Abstract

The global logistics network continues to expand between oceanic and inland spaces, by connecting with maritime shipping, hinterland transport, and inventory management in warehouses. In particular, the maritime container transport network significantly evolved to such an extent that it has increased its importance in the global supply chain. Container transport between shippers and consignees, however, has been studied mainly from the ocean shipping lines perspective, focusing on the delivery of containers between ports. Container terminal operators provide loading/unloading services to/from ocean shipping lines and inland transporters. Inland transporters deliver containers between ports and warehouses in the case of Less Container Loaded (LCL), and between ports and final destinations (i.e. consignees), in the case of Full Container Loaded (FCL). Multimodal container transport services between shippers and consignees remain fragmented amongst the specialised service providers (Ducruet and Van der Horst, 2009). Furthermore, inland transporters often provide inventory management services through their own warehouses in the global supply chain. The modelling of the global logistics network needs to integrate both maritime shipping and inland transport into a combined perspective, taking into account the whole management of multimodal container transport between shippers and consignees. This chapter focuses on the practical manner of multimodal container transport chain, especially from a viewpoint of cross-border logistics in the hinterland.