Logistics trends and their impact on European combined transport - services, traffic and industrial organisation

Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2003

In this paper an attempt is made to apply a joint logistics and transportation perspective on combined transport. Three conceptual models are used to explain the mutual complement of logistics and trans-portation, the increasing business process and transactional orientation of the industrial manufacturing system and the resulting fast increase in competence requirements. An overview of current trends in logistics is provided, which together with the models is used to dis-cuss impacts on the transportation sector and more precisely on European combined transport. The offered services, the structure of traffic and ongoing changes of industrial organisation are focussed. This theoretical background is combined with evidence from a large number of references, which to-gether support the development of a scenario of development trends for European combined transport. The final conclusion is the combined transport industry needs a competence leap in the direction of an intermodal industry that is fully integrated across all four classic traffic modes and uses equally so-phisticated information and communication tools for the logistics support of their operations as the large globally active manufacturing industries.