Identifying Governance Relationships Between Intermodal Terminals and Logistics Platforms

Abstract

Governance theory examines different ways of managing resources and relationships in order to achieve a desired outcome. This paper applies governance theory to intermodal terminals and logistics platforms, extending previous work on ownership to include different operational models. An inductive methodology is used to derive a typology of governance relationships from an analysis of the transport and logistics literature. The classification developed in this paper explores different kinds of integration that can help support growth of intermodal transport services. The understanding of transport governance is extended via three key relationships: first, between the logistics platform and the site tenants (therefore, encouraging consolidation and efficiencies that can boost rail services at the site); second, between the terminal operator and rail service provision (which can aid service planning and train loading factors); and third, between the inland site (either terminal, logistics platform or both) and port(s), (thus enabling better planning and efficiency of port rail shuttles).

Keywords:

• governance
• intermodal transport
• inland terminals
• rail
• corridors
• institutions
• freight
• logistics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding

The research for this paper was undertaken with the financial support of the GreCOR project funded by the European Union through the ERDF Interreg IVB programme.

Notes

1. See Rodríguez-Pose (2013) for a recent overview of the institutional literature.

2. While intermodal transport includes container movements by both rail and barge, rail transport is by far the most common topic in the literature. The barge literature (e.g. Choong et al., 2002; Groothedde et al., 2005; Konings, 2007; Konings et al., 2013; Trip & Bontekoning, 2002) tends to focus on operations rather than on terminal development and governance issues.