Editorial: Young maritime researchers—a note of respect

Globalization, liberalization, competition and spatial interaction are significant factors affecting the transformation of manufacturing industries worldwide. In the transportation and logistics industry, however, cooperation is becoming even more critical than competition in determining firms' efficiency. Cooperation has always characterized the liner sector in which strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions have generated twin effects: notable increases in ship size and falls in freight rates. Meanwhile, the stevedoring industry is undergoing privatization-driven consolidation and the emergence of global pure terminal operators. This article focuses on vertical integration between global carriers and terminal operators. We address the following key current issues: 1. dedicated terminals as a strategy for cutting costs and controlling integrated transport chains;

2. the struggle for supply chain control, involving global carriers versus global terminal operators, driven by financial power and technical and managerial capability.

We close analysing one of the core problems of the market, namely the evolving role of the dedicated terminals. For the pure stevedores they represent an opportunity to secure a cargo, while in the hands of the liners they enable cost stability and the possibility to put pressure on pure terminal operators.     

Optimal management of human resources in transhipment container ports

Human resources allocation plays a key role in transhipment maritime container terminals to achieve high levels of productivity and provide high quality services to shipping companies. The deep interest of container terminals in this issue can be supported by optimization methods. In this work, an optimization model is proposed to determine the optimal daily allocation of crane operators and trailer drivers. Different requirements are taken into account for permanent staff, external workers and personnel shortfall. Since workforce undermanning is a crucial factor for both shipping companies and container terminals, we aim to show that personnel shortfalls and operation delays can be significantly reduced if the model encompasses a longer-than-1-day planning horizon in a rolling horizon fashion.     

Estimating demand variables of maritime container transport: An aggregate procedure for the Mediterranean area

Demand variables of maritime container transport (throughput, transhipment and origin–destination flows) may be estimated with freight demand models. As their parameters generally vary both in time and space, models may not be transferable to geographical areas and time periods differing from that for which they are calibrated.     

A model system for the ex-ante assessment of city logistics measures

This paper proposes a model system developed in order to support ex-ante assessment of city logistics measures. The model system allows us to simulate the choices of each decision-maker involved in the urban freight transport and logistics and to investigate how the policies and the following measures can influence her/his choices.The model system is an open architecture and consists of two levels: commodity and vehicle. The commodity level allows us to analyse the attraction and acquisition movements taking into account the effects due to city logistics policy implementation affecting the end-consumer and retailer/wholesaler/producer (restocker) choices. The freight sold in each urban shop (or in general urban business) is estimated starting from consumption demand and, then, the restocker’s choices for restocking are analysed in depth. The vehicle level focuses on the restocking process and the links between retailer and wholesaler/producer operating in the study area. This level allows us to investigate the impacts of implementing city logistics measures on journey time, timing and path used for restocking the urban retail businesses.