LOGISTICS AND INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

- JASON MONIOS -

- RICKARD BERGQVIST -

By Dr. Luis ALFARO, YEAR 2024

LOGISTICS AND INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

PART I:
INTRODUCTION

SECTION I:

CHAPTER 1:
INTRODUCTION
 01 INTRODUCTION

02 THE ORIGINS OF
Chapter Outline INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

03 SPATIAL CONCEPTS IN
INTERMODAL
TRANSPORT
04 POLICY AND PLANNING
FOR INTERMODAL
TRANSPORT
 01 INTRODUCTION
This chapter introduces the topic of Intermodal Freight Transport and Logistics,
identifying its role within the broader area of freight transport, in addition to its place
within logistics.

The outline of this chapter also provides a brief review of policies and issues as well as
spatial descriptions of intermodal transport via corridors and nodes before moving on to
the operational focus of this book.

The chapter a great overview of key elements related to intermodal transport operations
and how they are related to questions concerning policies and planning stages.
02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL TRANSPORT
WHAT IS INTERMODAL TRANSPORT?
Multimodal transport refers to the use of more than one mode in a
transport chain (e.g., air, rail, road, water), while intermodal refers
specifically to a transport movement in which the goods remain
within the same loading unit (container).

While wooden boxes had been utilized since the early days of rail, it
was not until strong metal containers were developed that true
intermodal transport emerged.

The efficiencies and hence cost reductions of eliminating excessive

handling by keeping the goods within the same unit were demonstrated
in the first trials of a container vessel by Malcom McLean in 1956.
02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL TRANSPORT
WHAT IS INTERMODAL TRANSPORT?
 02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL
TRANSPORT
WHAT IS INTERMODAL TRANSPORT?
Some questions:

1. What is a Bill of Lading?

2. Why is the Bill of Lading important?

3. What’s on a Bill of Lading?

4. Types of BoL 1. Establish different groups and

research about the 6 given
questions

5. Who issues Bill of Lading? 2. Each group will prepare a PPT of 3

slides

3. You will have 5 minutes for your

6. How much does a BoL cost? presentation
 02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL
TRANSPORT
WHAT IS INTERMODAL TRANSPORT?

1. Establish different groups and

research about the 15 different
types of BoL

2. Each group will prepare a PPT of 3

slides

3. You will have 5 minutes for your

presentation
 02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL
TRANSPORT
WHAT IS INTERMODAL TRANSPORT?
02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL TRANSPORT
TYPES OF INTERMODAL TRANSPORTATION
There are two types of intermodal transportation:

 COFC – Expanded as Container on Flat Car

If you’re looking for an inexpensive and effective method of intermodal

shipping, the answer is COFC. Here, four containers can be loaded
onto a ‘well car’ (also known as a double-stack car or stack car)
simultaneously

COFC (container-on-flat-car) refers to transporting standardized

containers. Container is transferable to all transportation modes
with the exception of pipeline
 02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL
TRANSPORT
TYPES OF INTERMODAL TRANSPORTATION

 TOFC – Trailer-On-Flat Car

It is an intermodal transportation method where the over-the-road or

OTR trailer is placed on the well-car directly

TOFC (trailer-on-flat-car) refers to transporting truck trailers (semi-

trailers) on rail flatcars, usually over longer distances than truck
normally haul

Both the COFC and TOFC are useful in intermodal transportation.

They cut down on manual labor and also save up time, effort, and
money for shippers
 02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL
TRANSPORT
WHEN TO USE THE INTERMODAL TRANSPORTATION?

 The weight of goods is less than 25 tons

 The cargo is considered to have an intermediate value

 It’s a long-distance haul (more than three hundred miles within a day)

 Your cargo flow is continuous and regular and to the same

destination

 To reduce the carbon footprint, then should opt for intermodal

transportation
02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL TRANSPORT
SOME IMPROVEMENT IN THE INTERMODAL
TRANSPORT?

The initial container revolution, took place in ports, as

the stevedoring (loads ships and stows cargo)
industry was transformed over a few decades from a
labor-intensive operation to an increasingly
automated activity.

This in turn means that ships can spend a much higher proportion
of their time at sea, becoming far more profitable.
02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL TRANSPORT
02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL TRANSPORT
CONSOLIDATION OF GLOBALIZATION

Shipping lines grew and then merged to form massive

companies that spanned the globe.

Container ports expanded out of origins as general

cargo ports or were built entirely from scratch.
02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL TRANSPORT
INTERMODAL CONTAINERS

Intermodal containers and ISO containers are the

same freight containers. They can be used across
multiple modes of transport without the need to
unload/reload the items inside
02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL TRANSPORT
INTERMODAL CONTAINERS

•These containers are manufactured according to the

International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
guidelines, which include: structural integrity, qualities
to withstand different types of weather and right size
& longevity
02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL TRANSPORT
INTERMODAL CONTAINERS

•Because of the standard sizes, they can be used

easily across rail, road, or sea. ISO containers can be
of 20 feet or 40 feet in length with varying breadth
and height
02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL TRANSPORT
INTERMODAL CONTAINERS

•The most common dimensions available in the

market are:

 1 TEU: 20ft x 8ft x 8ft6”

 2 TEU: 40ft x 8ft x 8ft6”
 High Cube: 20ft x 8ft x 9ft6”
02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL TRANSPORT
INTERMODAL CONTAINERS
 02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL
TRANSPORT
KEY IMPORTANT FACTORS

Some existing major ports today show their legacy as

river ports and require dredging to keep pace with

larger vessels with deep drafts (e.g., Hamburg),

whereas newer container ports are built in deep
water, requiring not dredging but filling in to create the
terminal land area (e.g., Maasvlakte 2, Rotterdam).
 02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL
TRANSPORT
KEY IMPORTANT FACTORS

•The move to purpose-built facilities with deeper

water severed the link between port and city,
with job numbers reduced and those remaining
moved far from the local community, altering the
economic geography of port cities (Hesse, 2013;
Martin, 2013).
 02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL
TRANSPORT
KEY IMPORTANT FACTORS

Most of the new generation of container ports are

operated by one of a handful of globalized port
terminal operators, such as Hutchison Port Holdings
or APM.
 02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL
TRANSPORT
KEY IMPORTANT FACTORS

• Consolidation across the industry in the

decade leading up to the onset of the global
economic crisis in 2008, in which many mergers and
acquisitions took place in both shipping liner services
and port terminal operations.
 02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL
TRANSPORT
KEY IMPORTANT FACTORS

•Ports changed from city-based centers of local trade

to major hubs for cargo to pass through, with distant
origins and destinations. This development created
the container revolution, as distribution centers
(DCs) located in key inland locations became key
traffic generators.
 02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL
TRANSPORT
KEY IMPORTANT FACTORS

Port actors seek stability where possible, needing to

anchor or capture traffic to make themselves less
susceptible to revenue loss when the market is low.
 02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL
TRANSPORT
KEY IMPORTANT FACTORS

Inland transport is now the area where they seek to

secure this advantage. This need to control inland
connections is not just about physical infrastructure
but institutional issues such as labor relations and
other regulatory issues.
 02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL
TRANSPORT
KEY IMPORTANT FACTORS

Before the nineteenth century, hinterland transport

primarily consisted of sailing ships and horse-drawn
wagons. During the nineteenth century, barge canal
operations combined with horse or rail became more
common, and there were even some early
experiences with intermodal transport units (ITU).
 02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL
TRANSPORT
KEY IMPORTANT FACTORS

It was in the United States where true intermodal

transport was established successfully. During the
1980s, carriers operating in the trans-Pacific trade
were suffering from excess tonnage and low freight
rates.
 02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL
TRANSPORT
KEY IMPORTANT FACTORS

Different geographical regions have substantially different

prerequisites for the respective mode of transport. There
are, therefore, substantial differences between regions and
countries when it comes to the usage of the different
modes of transport. Some other important facts are
regulatory aspects, status of infrastructure and,

occasionally, technology.
 02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL
TRANSPORT
KEY IMPORTANT FACTORS

•In Europe the road transport is extensively

used… In Japan, the road transport is more
reliable…

• In the USA, the rail transport has a larger share due

the loading capacity…
 02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL
TRANSPORT
KEY IMPORTANT FACTORS

•Various types of electrical systems, signaling systems,

and so on in the European Union (EU) are other reasons
why rail has a lower market share in the EU compared
with other regions.
 02 THE ORIGINS OF INTERMODAL
TRANSPORT
KEY IMPORTANT FACTORS

• How about the Vietnamese Intermodal

Freight Transport and Logistics?
LOGISTICS AND INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

PART I:
INTRODUCTION

SECTION II:

CHAPTER 1:
INTRODUCTION
03 SPATIAL CONCEPTS IN INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

A node may be defined simply as a location or a point in space; in the

case of transport, this would represent an origin or destination point.

A node can serve as an access point to join a transport network, or it

may be a point joining two linkages within a system. Two defining
characteristics of such nodes are centrality and intermediacy.
03 SPATIAL CONCEPTS IN INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

CENTRALITY

A central location exerts a centripetal pull on

the region.
03 SPATIAL CONCEPTS IN INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

INTERMEDIACY

Refers to an intermediate location in between centers.

 03 SPATIAL CONCEPTS IN INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

NODE

Nodes can also be defined as points of articulation or interfaces between spatial

systems (Rodrigue, 2004), particularly different levels (e.g. local and regional) and
types (e.g. intermodal connections), but the articulation concept can also include
joining different categories of system, such as transport and logistics systems.
This involves the relation of the transport activity to other related activities, such
as processing, distribution and all activities within the wider logistics system
(Hesse and Rodrigue, 2004).
03 SPATIAL CONCEPTS IN INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

LOCATION = POINTS = NODES

ALL are joined by links. These links may be physical, meaning either fixed,
such as roads, rail track and canals, or flexible links such as sea routes. They
may also be operational links, referring to services, such as road haulage or
shipping schedules. In operational terms, links can be measured in terms of
their capacity, current usage and congestion. Nodes are often rated by their
connectivity, which could either refer to the number and quality of physical links
or the number and frequency of operational links.
 03 SPATIAL CONCEPTS IN INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

LOCATION = POINTS = NODES

Operational strategies of freight operators go beyond single links and can be

expressed in various ways, such as hub-and-spoke, string (several actors) or point-
to-point.
These combined operational plans then become transport networks, either a
single company network or the accumulation of all available services within a
given area.
 03 SPATIAL CONCEPTS IN INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

NETWORK

It can be defined as the set of links between nodes. Again, this may be considered
from a physical or operational perspective.

A high-quality network may contain a number of nodes with high connectivity, high
centrality and high intermediacy, linked to each other with frequent, high capacity
services within a small number of degrees.
 03 SPATIAL CONCEPTS IN INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

CORRIDOR

It can be defined as an accumulation of flows and infrastructure (Rodrigue, 2004).

In some ways, the concept of a corridor is somewhat arbitrary and may be used
for branding or public relations (PR) purposes. This is because, beyond a specific
piece of infrastructure (e.g. one road or rail line between two places), a corridor
usually denotes a large swathe of land through which multiple routes are possible
along numerous separate pieces of infrastructure with many different flows
organized and executed by different actors.
 04 POLICY AND PLANNING FOR INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

It is a public responsibility to ensure sufficient

capacity
on all transport links to support a growing
economy, but the mix of public and
private interests in freight operations
can result in considerable uncertainty
when it comes to investment in upgrades and
capacity enhancements, or connecting
freight nodes to the transport network.
 04 POLICY AND PLANNING FOR INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

SOME IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES:

While highways and motorways are
generally maintained by
governments for both passenger and
freight use, rail and waterways can
be either privately or publicly owned.
04 POLICY AND PLANNING FOR INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

THE MOST SUCCESSFUL CASE:

The United States is large enough
to sustain competition between
different operators, each with their
own extensive infrastructure
network serving most of the same
origins and destinations.
 04 POLICY AND PLANNING FOR INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

THE CASE OF EUROPE:

A smaller geographical region such as
Europe would find such a system
difficult. In the current system
across Europe, infrastructure is owned by
national governments, while individual
rail operators compete with one another
to run services, paying access charges
for their use of the track infrastructure.
04 POLICY AND PLANNING FOR INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

THE CASE OF CHINA?

An interesting comparison is China,
which is still publicly controlled
and divided into several vertically
integrated regions.
04 POLICY AND PLANNING FOR INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

THE CASE OF THE CONTINENTAL

PENINSULA?
The loading gauge (width and height) is
restricted due to bridges and tunnels,
meaning that high cube containers
cannot be carried on some parts of the
network unless low wagons are used,
adding expense and inconvenience.
04 POLICY AND PLANNING FOR INTERMODAL TRANSPORT
GREAT ISSUES?

The inland leg was taken by road, rail or inland waterway, according to
the economic and practical imperatives of the shipper and transport
provider. Rail and water generally dominated long hauls because they
were cheaper.

However, as emissions and congestion rose up the government

agenda in the 1990s, governments began to see their role as to
address the negative externalities of transport.
 04 POLICY AND PLANNING FOR INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

GREAT ISSUES?
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, policy
documents multiplied across Europe
promising support for greener transport
measures to reduce dependence on road
transport, while also taking care politically
not to be seen to threaten the performance
of the road haulage industry which remains
essential to a functioning transport system.
 04 POLICY AND PLANNING FOR INTERMODAL TRANSPORT
OTHER REASONS?
• Road user charging is another policy implemented in some parts of Europe.
Better fleet management, use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), increased
backhauling, triangulation, reverse logistics, returning packaging for recycling and other
operational measures (McKinnon, 2010; McKinnon and Edwards, 2012), mean that emissions (if
not congestion) can be reduced quite substantially through improvements to road operations
rather than through modal shift.
• A cornerstone of these efforts in Europe is the Trans- European Network–Transport (TEN-T)
program, which identifies high-priority transport linkages across Europe; member states can then
bid for funding to invest in upgrading these links. It covers both passenger and freight and
includes all modes (as well as ‘motorways of the sea’). Its primary goal is not modal shift per se
but increased connectivity between member states.
04 POLICY AND PLANNING FOR INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

OTHER REASONS?
The role of the US Federal Government with regard to transport has been
primarily related to safety and licensing regulation, but it is increasingly taking a
direct role in intermodal infrastructure and operations.
For example, the Transportation Investment Generating
Economic Recovery (TIGER) program, as part of the US stimulus package,
provided $1.5 billion in federal funding in 2009, to be bid for by consortia of public
and private partners across the country (Monios, 2014).
 04 POLICY AND PLANNING FOR INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

THE CASE OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES?

These incentives are less common in developing
countries, which are focused more on developing their
logistics infrastructure to support business; therefore
interventionist transport policy has been pursued

primarily in developed countries. However,

supranational development agencies, such as the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD) and the United Nations Economic and
Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
(UNESCAP).
 04 POLICY AND PLANNING FOR INTERMODAL TRANSPORT

THE CASE OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES?

Both organizations have promoted policy actions to
improve port-hinterland connections and logistics
performance in developing countries, especially for
landlocked or otherwise poorly-connected inland

regions (e.g. UNCTAD, 2004, 2013; UNESCAP, 2006,

2008).
Yet it is important to remember that in many cases
there are good business reasons why intermodal
transport is not flourishing at a certain location due to
cargo and route characteristics.
 04 POLICY AND PLANNING FOR INTERMODAL TRANSPORT
THE CASE OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES?
 The other important role for governments is the regulation, administration and bureaucracy of
trade facilitation. Within a country, it will involve licenses to operate transport vehicles, regulation of
vehicle and infrastructure quality and quantity and permission to operate as a commercial transport
provider.
 It will also cover planning permission to build a logistics platform, provide connections to electricity
and water services, incorporating related issues, such as noise for local residents and all the small
issues of local planning.
 At the international level, regulation and international treaties cover the use of bills of lading and
various transport and insurance contracts that must be legally approved as well as customs
legislation in each country.
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DR. LUISALFARO
DIRECTOR OF PORTS, LOGISTICSAND SCM
SOUTHSTAR MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE, DA NANG, VIETNAM