Research outlook: A study about inland ports in the Physical Internet

Innovative mobility concepts for freight transport require a further digital (and physical) integration as well as a more efficient interconnectivity of all transport modes. Currently, freight transport networks are more or less fragmented and are mainly “managed” by forwarders, shippers or logistics service providers - there is no integrally operating transport network. Synchromodal transport can be regarded as enabler for such an integrally operating transport network and as an important constituent of the “Physical Internet”. “PI hubs” and “conventional” (intermodal) logistic nodes need to be regarded as key factors for the success of the synchromodal system: They are the neuralgic nodes where trans-shipment is happening. They form the backbone of an interconnected, synchromodal logistics network and link flows to and from various origins and destinations. So far, basic research regarding the functional design of potential PI hubs was undertaken for unimodal road-based crossdocking hubs, road-rail hubs and road-transit centres, but just a superficial analysis of road-rail-water hubs has been conducted. When undertaking research on hubs and defining their new roles in the PI, it is not sufficient to concentrate on their functional design only: The integration of intermodal hubs at strategic level (freight TEN-T), tactical level (Pan-European service profiles) and operational level (city-port relations) has to be investigated as well.
This paper introduces a proposed research project (“InPoPI”) which is about to start during 2018; explaining its objectives, expected results, state of the art and proposed methodology.