No abstract

Much has been written and spoken about short sea shipping within the European Union (EU) as a means of shifting goods from road to sea and of achieving a sustainable economic development. However, this shift is far from being a general reality, despite the few individual, and success stories that have taken place and the EUROSTAT data suggest that the overall effort has contributed very little towards attaining this desired shift. In the light of this, research was conducted to discover how to put short sea shipping on a more competitive level within European multimodal logistics supply chains. This paper aims at identifying service attributes of short sea shipping operations within multimodal transport chains by means of a questionnaire and, for that, examines the short sea shipping environment and contemporary European logistics trends. The analysis is based on empirical research, involving logistics operators, shippers' associations and intermodal rail operators, and allows an evaluation (based on statistical techniques) of the short sea shipping industry and its competitors. It extends previous work by considering these short sea shipping attributes within a multimodal transport context.

This paper considers the applicability of simulation tools in the development of lean ports and lean ports networks. To achieve its objective the paper analyses how container terminal operations work, gives an introduction to simulation, and provides an insight how simulation has been used in a port environment. The focus on a container terminal can be explained by the need to optimise resources, by the capability of a terminal to achieve very fast cargo handling rates, and by the simplification of intermodal transfer. The use of simulation tools has been of growing importance in port activities, especially when these are limited by physical constraints. This paper describes port industry operations, simulation, and assessment of the impact of simulation on the development of lean ports and lean ports networks. Maritime Economics & Logistics (2005) 7, 262–280. doi:10.1057/palgrave.mel.9100137

No abstract

The need to shift goods from road to underused transport capacity led the European Commission to embark on the development of two important policies: one concerning short sea shipping (SSS) and the other concerning the trans-European transport network (TEN-T). While for many years these policies were delineated separately, the introduction of ports and Project 21 in the TEN-T brought these two policies together. In light of this, the aim of this paper is to assess the impact of the TEN-T on SSS. To achieve this, the paper describes the SSS market segment; it puts into a historical perspective the TEN-T policy; and it carries out an assessment of the impact of the TEN-T on SSS. Maritime Economics & Logistics (2007) 9, 302–323. doi:10.1057/palgrave.mel.9100184