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The Port of Rotterdam and the Use of Intermodal Transportation

Containers which arrive in the large international port of Rotterdam are transported all over Europe and vice versa. Intermodal transportation should improve transportation of goods over longer distances. The port of Rotterdam and the use of intermodal transportation is the central topic of this paper. This extensive topic is converted into the following research question: what is the optimal distance to the port of Rotterdam for an inland container terminal? In order to develop an accurate answer on this question, various research papers, books, data and newspapers are used. 
 
Good hinterland connections to and from a port are of main importance for fast and reliable delivery of cargo flows. A ports hinterland has several characteristics, for instance the area where a port has a monopolistic position. Port hinterland can be determined by looking at generalized transport costs, in which transport costs and external costs are included. As a port handles a lot of different products, each product has other destinations, which is important for further transportation of the goods. There are economic effects of port hinterlands in terms of competition and commercial activity. Containers are usually transported by road, rail of inland barges into the large hinterland of Rotterdam. 
 
With the information about port hinterlands in mind, it is easier to understand intermodal transportation. Intermodal transportation is defined as a person or freight transported over a certain distance with the use of at least two different modes of transport. Intermodal transportation refers to a multimodal chain of container transportation services. Together with the importance of intermodal transportation in a global supply chains, there are also challenges to face, such as costs, liability and regulatory issues. A company's choice of transport mode depends on several factors, which one can roughly convert in term of costs. The most used mode of transport for containers from Rotterdam into the hinterland is for years dominated by truck, but road, rail and inland shipping are gaining in terms of containers transported. 
 
Inland container terminals provide facilities to transship containers between the different modes of transport. Intermodal transportation will be imporved when using inland terminals. Loading and unloading ships, storage facilities and loading of other of modes of transport are the operations processed at container terminals. The process can be executed in reverse order as well. There are some majors services that an inland container terminal should provide, under which belong intermediate storage between the various transport modes and collecting and delivery from containers and general cargo. Determining optimal inland terminal locations is nog easy. Theoretical econometric models can test whether a location is good or not. Several input variables are tested in order to get a possible set of locations as output. Factors of influence are, for instance environmental impact and transport costs. These factors were important when ECT decided where to locate their inland terminals. Other factors of influence are infrastructural feasibilities or government regulations. 
 
After having gathered information from models and the current situation, it should be possible to determine six factors which influence the location for an inland container terminal. Infrastructural facilities, characteristics of the surrounding area, main directions of containers transported into the hinterland of the port of Rotterdam, environmental impact, costs, social environment and government regulations have a significant effect on the location decision. These factors are applied to two inland container terminal projects: MTC Valburg and Container Terminal Alblasserdam, in the Netherlands, in order to compare the projects and to prove that the factors are broadly applicalbe. 
 
With the six factors of influence in mind, it should be possible to find an answer on the main research question. The best solution, based on the information gathered in this paper, is to develop two inland container terminals in the hinterland of Rotterdam. Then, one terminal can focus on the eastern container flows, and the other terminal on the containers heading South. The terminals should be located around Gorinchem and Moerdijk, which is the main conclusion of the paper.