1202 Customer and Agent Initiated Intermodal Transport Chains. Final report to the NRC/SMARTRANS program for the Norwegian part of NCR project no 188387

This report concludes the Norwegian part of the ERA-NET project CA-CHAINS (NCR project number 188387). Gothenburg University (UiG, The Logistics and Transport Research Group (LTRG) within the Department of Business Administration at the school of Business, Economics and Law) has been the lead partner in this project. Molde University College has been responsible for the Norwegian part. The main objective with this part of the project has been to increase knowledge and understanding of the initiation and development of customer and agent initiated intermodal transport chains.

Many of the findings are supported by earlier research; higher volumes and transport supply chain alignment are key success factors. The public sector has a role in coordinating and aligning the transport supply chain (coordination between ports, railway and terminal capacity and utilization, road network design and connectivity), to act as moderators where coordination needs are evident and to set correct prices and charges for use of various types of energy, and of transport infrastructure. But there are also likely areas of improvement for the transport users and providers, like aligning supply chains and carefully plan their activities more in light of the traditional logistics/operational management perspective where tradeoffs between e.g. transport and inventory costs in light of optimal lot sizes is one among several factors.

Further research into the issue of product variety in the intermodal service supply chain can perhaps be recommended to gain competitive power based on a wider scope where variables outside the core of the intermodal transport supply chain are taken into consideration. Moreover, we have focused on the shipper's willingness to choose or pay for ship transport with significant economies of scale in the discussion based on non-cooperative game theory. Carriers have only played a passive role. More specifically, if there is demand or sufficient contributions to cover the fixed costs, a ship service will be provided by a carrier. Adding carriers to the game could provide valuable insight into the market process and efficiency.