Hinterland Transport Research Articles

Private Port Pricing and Public Investment in Port and Hinterland Capacity

This paper examines pricing and investment actions in a setting similar to that of European ports such as Rotterdam, Antwerp, and Le Havre. Key features of the scenario are that the ports are congestion prone, and that they serve a hinterland that they are connected to by congested transport networks. The ports compete for traffic in an oligopolistic setting. The analysis emphasizes the interaction between the duopolistic port market and hinterland congestion. Two aspects of shipments are focused on: the costs of using port services and the cost of hinterland transport toward those final destinations. The framework of the analysis is a two-stage game in capacities and prices. The governance structure is such that decisions about capacity are public, but pricing is private. Main results show that ports charge users for congestion at the port and also for the share of hinterland congestion they impose on other customers of the port. This “partial internalization” means that ports with heavily congested hinterlands will charge higher prices. A second finding is that extra investment in one port reduces congestion at both ports, but raises hinterland congestion where the port is located. Along similar lines, investment in the hinterland will lead to more congestion at the port that it serves and resulting higher port charges. A third finding is that local governments that invest to maximize welfare will invest in the local port, but the induced increase in hinterland congestion is an important factor in those actions. The results suggest that duopolistic port pricing induces public entities to invest less in port capacity. Finally, private ports do not necessarily charge higher port prices. In fact, if the country governments directly control prices of the port within their jurisdiction, they may charge even higher prices than private operators.

Underground Logistics Systems: A Way to Cope with Growing Internal Container Traffic in the Port of Antwerp?

During the last decade, container traffic was the driving force behind the growth in cargo handling in the port of Antwerp, Belgium. Between 1995 and 2005 container traffic almost tripled, enabling Antwerp to increase its market share in the Hamburg-Le Havre range. Moreover, various recent studies indicate that container traffic will continue to grow strongly in the years to come. In order to be able to respond to these growth perspectives and to safeguard the future position of the port of Antwerp as a container mainport, a new tidal container dock has been built on the left bank of the river Scheldt, the so-called Deurganckdock. This dock will lead to large flows of internal port container traffic between both river banks. As the traditional hinterland transport modes offer insufficient capacity to accommodate the increasing number of containers in the long-term, it seems worthwhile to consider the idea of constructing a dedicated underground logistics system (ULS) to transfer containers between both river banks. This paper presents a first analysis of different variants of such a ULS.

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.

Hub-and-Spoke Networks in Container-on-Barge Transport

Container-on-barge (COB) transport has developed successfully in Europe during the past two decades, but this transport business has been focused primarily on maritime container flows and therefore developed as a typical hinterland transport system. This paper postulates that increasing the market share of COB transport, and in particular opening up new geographical markets, would require transport services in addition to the existing line and point-to-point barge services. The central question is whether hub-and-spoke (H-S) services could be a fruitful tool in improving the performance of COB transport and so in gaining market share. The typical cost, service, and geographical characteristics of H-S networks are discussed and illustrated with examples from the airline industry, which has a rich history in H-S research and applications. These general features of H-S networks are used as a framework to explore the feasibility of H-S networks in COB transport. The conditions and implications of operating these networks in barge transport are discussed. The discussion indicates that an H-S network can result in efficient barge services, because it can make a vessel most productive through optimized sailing schedules and more efficient use of vessel capacity in case of differences in waterway dimensions. A major precondition, however, is a cheap, fast, and reliable exchange of containers in the hub terminal.

Hub-and-Spoke Networks in Container-on-Barge Transport

Container-on-barge (COB) transport has developed successfully in Europe during the past two decades, but this transport business has been focused primarily on maritime container flows and therefore developed as a typical hinterland transport system. This paper postulates that increasing the market share of COB transport, and in particular opening up new geographical markets, would require transport services in addition to the existing line and point-to-point barge services. The central question is whether hub-and-spoke (H-S) services could be a fruitful tool in improving the performance of COB transport and so in gaining market share. The typical cost, service, and geographical characteristics of H-S networks are discussed and illustrated with examples from the airline industry, which has a rich history in H-S research and applications. These general features of H-S networks are used as a framework to explore the feasibility of H-S networks in COB transport. The conditions and implications of operating these networks in barge transport are discussed. The discussion indicates that an H-S network can result in efficient barge services, because it can make a vessel most productive through optimized sailing schedules and more efficient use of vessel capacity in case of differences in waterway dimensions. A major precondition, however, is a cheap, fast, and reliable exchange of containers in the hub terminal.

CONTAINERIZATION AT CANADIAN PORTS

ABSTRACT Containerization has produced significant changes in the traffic of Canadian ports, reflecting both carrier and route characteristics. The formerly unified system of the St. Lawrence and its Maritime winter outports has been separated into two functionally distinct groups. Container shipping into the St. Lawrence is dominated by small carriers, calling only at Canadian ports, where they have private terminals. Sailings to Maritime ports are dominated by large carriers, serviced by common-user terminals, and deriving the bulk of their traffic from United States ports. On the west coast delay in providing adequate common-user facilities at Vancouver has resulted in substantial loss of container traffic to Seattle. The volume of Canadian container cargo reflects competition between Canadian and United States ports and their hinterland transport systems, the role of labor problems in influencing carriers' choice of port, and the nature of export commodities.