• Transport Research

The question of responsibility has been the subject of lot of interest and debate. This work will shed light on responsibility – and sustainability – in the context of transportation with a special emphasis on intermodal freight. This publication provides a subjective - and an impressionistic - interpretation of the concept of responsibility. It is a prelude with the target of encapsulating certain attributes that affect and explain the decisions and policies of responsibility. At the outset of the research, the decision was made to embrace the theme in a more general manner than to limit it to the examination on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR or related acronyms and practices).

The threat of greenhouse gases and the resulting climate change have been causing concern at international levels. This has led towards new sustainable policies towards reducing the anthropogenic effects on the environment and the population through promoting sustainable solutions for the freight industry. The research was prompted by the growing concerns that were no mode-choice tool to select as an alternative to road freight transport. There were growing concerns that a large percentage of transport related negativities, related various costs and pollution costs, losses arising from traffic accidents, delay costs from congestion and abatement costs due to climate impacts of transport, etc., were not being borne by the user. Economists have defined them as external costs. Internalising these external costs has been regarded as an efficient way to share the transport related costs. The aim of this research was to construct a freight mode choice model, based on total transport costs, as a mode choice substitution tool. This model would allow the feasibility of choosing alternative intermodal system to a primarily ‘road system’. The thesis postulates a novel model in computing total freight transport costs incurred during the total transit of goods along three North European transport corridors. The model evaluated the total costs summing the internal, external and time costs for varied mode choices from unimodal and the second level of intermodal transport systems. The research outcomes have shown the influences of total costs on the shipper and the preferred mode choices from the available mode/route options with sustainable transport solutions. The impacts of such alternatives were evaluated in this research. This will allow the embedding of intermodal infrastructures as sustainable and alternative mode choices for the freight industry.

ROTATION ANALYSIS In order to understand freight facilities demand in the city center and characterize the operation, rotation counts of freight operations were developed based following on-street parking analysis methodology presented in Cardenas & Cal y Mayor (2007). LEVEL OF SERVICE Loading and unloading performance analysis methodology found in Alho & Silva (2014) was selected as the most appropriate for this context, due to there is a high dependence on bay infrastructure for loading and loading operations and because this methodology was developed in a context of low data availability. STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS Multi-Actor Multi-Criteria Analysis – MAMCA (Macharis et al., 2010) permitted to conclude that a combined set of strategies for loading and uploading operations in city centers should be implemented to raise parking offer and adapt to different demand conditions in terms of schedules and vehicles sizes. Some strategies requires a strong set of public incentives, including tax benefits and land price controls for logistic use. For this MAMCA analysis the surveys were completed as follows: 10 from Shippers/Carriers, 101 from receivers (Question PRO application used), 6 from authorities, 3 from residents (community leaders) and 2 from academics. According to the Cali Economic Census (DANE, 2006) there are approximately 4222 economic units in Cali city center, of which 23% belong to the retail trading sector for food, drinks and tobacco, the biggest group (CIIU Code 5211 of Chamber of Commerce). We decided to start our research with this type of commerce (971 units) and we have obtained responses from approximately 13% of them, so this represents a statistical confidence level of 90% (Torres, Paz, & Salazar, 2006). We developed 9 questionnaires for the enterprises that can represent approximately the 18% of the total shipper size in Cali city center (Bavaria, Coca-Cola, Productos Cárnicos, Productos Enrico, Distribuidora Colombina, Distribuidora Alpina, Pollos El Galpón, Quesos la Florida, Nutresa). We also interviewed 9 trade leaders and managers of parcel transport companies, (Cavasa, Andi, Adicomex, Sociedad Portuaria, Gids, Posey (International Freight Forwarders), Fedetranscol, Concretesa (Project’s Manager), Fenalco, Grecocentro).

The worldwide movement of freight has emerged as one of the most critical and dynamic aspects of the transport sector. The contributors to this study examine the current state of global freight transport, with an emphasis on Europe and North America and their extra-regional linkages. These original contributions synthesize existing knowledge, highlight new developments, problems and possible solutions, and underscore the need for further research.