Accompanied versus Unaccompanied Transport in Short Sea Shipping between Spain and Italy: An Analysis from Transport Road Firms Perspective

Abstract

Short sea shipping (SSS) is called to play a key role in ensuring sustainable mobility in the European context. In the past years several studies tried to define the SSS requirements and also to identify the SSS lines that were economically viable. However, no studies approach the profile of their users—the road transport firms—and the organizational patterns adopted by them, in order to gain a better understanding of this transport modality. This research, on the basis of a sample of 81 international road transport firms that use SSS between Spain and Italy, analyses the profile of these firms and certain elements inherent to their relationship with the shipping firms, according to the two modalities of organizing their SSS transport operations: accompanied versus unaccompanied.

Acknowledgement

This study has benefited from the funding of the research project GV06/385.

Notes

According to the Spanish Ministry of Infrastructures (Ministerio de Fomento, 2004, 277), the average cost per kilometer of the road transport in Spain was lightly higher, 0.8 Euro, whereas in the Italian case it was higher, 1 Euro.