Dry ports: research outcomes, trends, and future implications

Abstract

The concept of dry ports has gained significant interest among practitioners and researchers in the last decade. Consequently, publications on this topic have followed this development, and today there are more than 100 papers available in the Scopus and Science Direct databases, compared with only two papers in 2007. The purpose of this paper is to summarize current scientific knowledge on the phenomenon and to identify research outcomes, trends, and future research implications by conducting a systematic literature review (SLR). SLR is an explicit and reproducible method that ensures the reliability and traceability of the results. The selection of relevant papers was performed independently by each author using Rayyan QCRI software; the coding and analysis were conducted with the help of NVivo qualitative data analysis software. Findings show that the research area is largely represented by qualitative cases and optimization studies covering various aspects of dry ports. Dry port examples around the world differ based on location, functions, services, ownership, and maturity level. Although the research area is young and discrete, five main thematic areas are identified: debate on the concept, environmental impact, economic impact, performance impact, and dry ports from a network perspective. Keywords Dry port • Intermodal transportation • Hinterland • Seaport inland access • Systematic literature review We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the time and effort devoted by the MEL reviewers to improving the quality of this work. This research was funded in part by the Interreg Valu2Sea project.

Managing supply chain uncertainty by building flexibility in container port capacity: a logistics triad perspective and the COVID-19 case

“…In such a system, customers can instead drop or pick up their containers at the inland terminals. Dry ports can also provide services such as customs, security inspections, pre-assembly, labeling, and packaging (Khaslavskaya and Roso 2020;Roso et al 2015;Bask et al 2014).…”

Dry Port Terminal Location Selection by Applying the Hybrid Grey MCDM Model

“…There is also a significant increase in pressure on the transport flows in the port hinterland, especially in terms of sustainability, which is manifested in the form of public opinion pressure or through formal legislation [3]. In addition, the part of the logistics chain in the port hinterland represents as much The term "dry port" was first mentioned in scientific papers in 1984 as the "Port of Memphis as a dry port for New Orleans" [6], but more extensive research on DP terminals was done by Beresford and Dubey on landlocked countries in Africa in 1990 [7,12]. DP is interesting as a subject of research due to numerous advantages generated by its implementation, and some of them are: significant reduction of traffic congestion in the immediate vicinity of the seaport it serves, as well as on the roads connecting the port to the hinterland; more efficient transport and faster movement of goods; improved rail-sea intermodal capacity; port competitiveness improvements through the better market access; significant increase of the market share of railway and inland waterway transport operators; transport cost reduction; expansion of the range of logistics services offered to the customers (shippers and recipients); improvement of the efficiency and reliability of supply chains; reduction of the environmental impacts (air pollution, noise, vibration); development of the regional economy through the creation of new jobs; and attraction of a larger volume of flows, etc.…”

“…DP is interesting as a subject of research due to numerous advantages generated by its implementation, and some of them are: significant reduction of traffic congestion in the immediate vicinity of the seaport it serves, as well as on the roads connecting the port to the hinterland; more efficient transport and faster movement of goods; improved rail-sea intermodal capacity; port competitiveness improvements through the better market access; significant increase of the market share of railway and inland waterway transport operators; transport cost reduction; expansion of the range of logistics services offered to the customers (shippers and recipients); improvement of the efficiency and reliability of supply chains; reduction of the environmental impacts (air pollution, noise, vibration); development of the regional economy through the creation of new jobs; and attraction of a larger volume of flows, etc. [3,6,[13][14][15].…”

“…However, taking into account the role of the DP terminal in logistics networks and some of the basic effects it generates, one of the most important directions of research relates to the analysis of the sustainability of the concept. The impact of the DP terminal concept on the environmental sustainability has been most frequently investigated in the literature, especially the effect of reducing the emissions of carbon dioxide and other carbon-based components [6,[20][21][22][23][24], and also other positive effects on the environment, such as reduction of emissions of other gases, particles, noise and vibration, and reduction of traffic congestion, traffic accidents, etc. (e.g., [25]).…”

“…(e.g., [25]). There are also a significant number of studies that, in addition to the environmental, also take into account the economic or social sustainability (e.g., [6,13,26,27]), while the studies that simultaneously analyze environmental, economic, and social sustainability are very rare [1, 28,29]. This paper follows up the previous research in this area and builds upon it by considering the most favorable locations for establishing the concept of the DP terminals based on criteria that include the requirements of all stakeholders in the decision-making process in order to achieve environmental, economic, and social sustainability of the logistics system of the observed area.…”