BEHZAD BEHDANI D E L F T U N I V E R S I T Y O F T E C H N O L O G Y

T R A N S P O R T & P L A N N I N G D E P A R T M E N T

SYNCHROMODAL FREIGHT TRANSPORT SYSTEM

What is discussed here

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Intermodal freight transport

Challenges for intermodal freight transport

What is synchromodal freight transport?

Challenges in synchromodal transport

Hierarchy of decision problems in a synchromodal freight transport system

Intermodal freight transport

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Definition by European Commission (1997) for Intermodal Freight Transport :

“the movement of goods in one loading unit, which uses successively several modes of transport without handling of the goods themselves in transshipment between the modes”.

Container

terminal

Container

terminal

Main transport

(Inland waterway or rail)

A typical intermodal freight transport system

Challenges for intermodal transport

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Single-mode road transport is the dominant transport mode in Europe with a market share of about 80% (in terms on tonne-kms).

Advantages: flexibility (e.g., in case of disturbances), door-to-door transport solutions, competitive pricing, customer-made solutions, reliability, speed, gets more sustainable as compared to rail and IWW transport, and high accessibility

Disadvantages: congestion, negative external effects, less safe than rail and IWW transport, increasing costs due to inclusion of external costs into price of road freight transport, and less scale economies than rail and IWW transport

Source: Bart Wiegmans (2012) Intermodalism: Competition or Cooperation?

Environmental impact of road transport

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Although heavy good vehicles only make up 3% of the European vehicle fleet and 7% of driven kilometres, they account for almost a quarter of road transport CO2 emissions, or about 6% of total EU greenhouse gas emissions (European Commission, 2013). This is expected to rise to 8% by 2020.

Lorries are also responsible for 20% of road congestion in the EU. The road congestion is even more important around port areas as it has an adverse effect on the competitive position of a port as a location for logistics businesses.

Source: European Commission (2013). Climate Action Plan

Barriers for intermodal transport

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1. Operational problems, for example:

Train decoupling

Use of rail infra for both passenger/freight transport

Terminal opening hours

2. Organizational problems, for example:

Co-ordinations between multiple partners and timing of road haulage

3. Economical problems , for example

High transshipment cost

Source: Wichser, J. (2001). Technical and operational developments needed for a better market success of intermodal freight transport.

What is synchromodal transport?

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Core idea:

Integration of transport volumes and modes in order to better use the capacity with fewer cost and negative effects on the environment

Possible benefits:

Increasing the flexibility in transport choices

Increase the utilization of rail and inland waterway

Optimal use of available capacity on the network

Sea Terminal

Inland Terminal

Barge

Train Truck

Integrated view

What is synchromodal transport?

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Paul Ham (2012):

Making optimal use of all modes of transport and available capacity, at all times, as an integrated transport solution.

Lucassen & Dogger (2012):

Constantly tuning inside and between good chains, transport chains and infrastructure so that given the aggregated transport demand, and at any moment in time, the best modality can be chosen.

van Riessen (2013):

Synchromodal transport planning is intermodal transport planning with the possibility of real-time switching between the modes.

What is synchromodal transport?

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Key aspects to synchromodal transport are:

Mode-free booking

Joint planning and coordination for a network of chains and not for individual chains

Bundling of flows and services

Flexible switching between modalities

Visibility, situational awareness and information sharing

Characteristics of synchromodal transport

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Source: Lucassen, I. & Dogger, T. (2012). Synchromodality pilot study - Identification of bottlenecks and possibilities for a network between Rotterdam, Moerdijk and Tilburg, s.l.: TNO.

Characteristics of synchromodal transport

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Mode free booking

Dynamic planning of transportation

Switching modes of transport in real time

Decision making based on network utilization

Combining transport flows (volume)

Cooperation between actors in the transportation chain

Information availability and visibility among actors

Source: Ham, P. (2012). Synchromodality.

Challenges in synchromodal transport

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Shippers’ involvement Mode- free booking

Shippers’

needs

identification

Shippers’

incentive

design

• What are the expectation of customers and how they may respond to synchromodal transport services?

• Which factors may impact the customers’ willingness to use the service and which potential shippers’ needs can be met by synchromodality?

• How the expected benefits of implementing a synchromodal system must be used to incentivise shippers? How gains must be shared with customers, e.g., by lower price or improved service level (flexibility)?

Performance comparison: Intermodal transport vs. road transport

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Source: INRETS (2000). IQ - Intermodal quality Final report for publication.

Challenges in synchromodal transport

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Synchronizing multiple transport chains

Organizational

Coordination

Operational

Coordination

• How different actors in different transport chains can be coordinated? How risk/gains must be shared? How cooperation must be facilitated?

• How information must be shared between different parties?

• How can a common platform be designed to coordinate multiple transport chains with different characteristics involved? How an ICT architecture must be planned considering the inter-operability challenges for different IT platforms of different parts in the chain?

• Is it necessary to have a neutral actors to facilitate the process?

Different actors in different transport chains: inland waterways

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Source: Van Der Horst, M.R., De Langen, P.W. (2008) “Coordination in hinterland transport chains: a major challenge for the seaport community”, Maritime Economics and Logistics 10 (1–2), 108–129

Different actors in different transport chains: rail

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Source: Van Der Horst, M.R., De Langen, P.W. (2008) “Coordination in hinterland transport chains: a major challenge for the seaport community”, Maritime Economics and Logistics 10 (1–2), 108–129

Different actors in different transport chains: road

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Source: Van Der Horst, M.R., De Langen, P.W. (2008) “Coordination in hinterland transport chains: a major challenge for the seaport community”, Maritime Economics and Logistics 10 (1–2), 108–129

Challenges in synchromodal transport

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Operational challenges

Integrated

service design

Tension

between

dynamics and

quality

• How an integrated service network including multiple transport modes – with different characteristics, e.g., different infrastructure availability constraints- can be planned and operationalized in the real world?

• How can we evaluate/improve the reliability and robustness of synchromodal transport in terms of operational uncertainties (e.g., unavailability of a service or variations in the arrival/delivery times) as compared to classical intermodal transport?

• How the exceptional events (like problems in a transport service) can be handled in the real-time?

Horizontal and vertical collaboration in hinterland transport

Horizontal collaboration

Inter-modality Synchro-modality

Uni-modality Multi-

modality Ve

rti

ca

l c

oll

ab

or

ati

on

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Synchronized System

Customer Demand/

Need

Moving Resources

Stationary Resources

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Multiple

Transport

Chains

What must be synchronized?

Hierarchy of decision problems in a synchromodal freight transport system

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Synchromodal

Network Design

Synchromodal

Service Pricing

Strategies

Intermodal Pricing

Strategies (Contract

Design)

Synchromodal

Service Design

Operational

Resource

Scheduling

Exceptional

Handling & Real-

time Switching

Op

er

ati

on

al

T

ac

tic

al

S

tra

teg

ic

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Synchromodal

Service Design

Operational

Resource

Scheduling

Customer Demand/

Need

Stationary Resources

Moving Resources

Expected demand

Actual demand

Route/Frequency of service (for each mode)

Different synchromodal requirements for different decision problems

Suggested readings

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Lucassen, I. & Dogger, T., 2012. Synchromodality pilot study - Identification of bottlenecks and possibilities for a network between Rotterdam, Moerdijk and Tilburg, s.l.: TNO.

Ham, P., 2012. Synchromodality. www. havenupdate.com/ index.php/download_file/view/1375/429/

Behdani, B., Fan, Y. Wiegmans, B. and Zuidwijk, R., Multimodal Schedule Design for Synchromodal Freight Transport Systems, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2438851

van Riessen, B., Negenborn, R. R., Dekker, R. & Lodewijks, G., 2013. Service network design for an intermodal container network with flexible due dates/times and the possibility of using subcontracted transport. Available at: http://www.synchromodaliteit.nl/wp-content/uploads/2013/ 09/Preprint-Bart-van-Riessen.pdf

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Thanks for your attention.

For any questions or comments and if you would like to have more information about the content of this work, please contact me

at the following e-mail address:

B.Behdani@tudelft.nl