Hinterland corridor management initiatives in the EU and the US: The role of ports

Abstract

With hinterland connectivity increasingly shaping now port competitiveness, port actors have intensified their regionalization efforts, establishing strong and functional links with the hinterland transport system. However, they did not stop there. For driving further efficiencies to the system, they have started to step more into the hinterland through vertical integration strategies and other targeted investments, gradually advancing their role from facilitators to entrepreneurs. Those business and market strategies need though to be efficiently complemented with others aiming to ensure institutional support and drive infrastructural developments into the hinterland. This is where hinterland corridor management initiatives can play an important role. Ports participating into such initiatives are provided with the opportunity to enhance their hinterland intelligence and stress out bottlenecks to be addressed that are beyond their reach but nevertheless can impose a considerable impact on their competitiveness. All the aforementioned strategies are being discussed in this paper, with emphasis on corridor management initiatives established in the world’s two key trading regions i.e. Europe and the U.S. The structure and activities of those initiatives are outlined and valuable insights are provided on how these can be effectively exploited by ports for devising comprehensive hinterland strategies.