The container terminal community

Abstract

Over the past 30 years, technological developments have not only aOE ected the design and operation of the port function, but also the organizational and institutional relationships within the port community. Two inter-organizational interaction models are presented, drawing on the ® ndings of over 200 in-depth interviews with senior managers representing terminal operators, shipping lines, feeder operators, ship agents, road hauliers, freight forwarders and shippers serving the UK± Far East trade. The ® rst model represents a breakbulk berth of the 1960s and the second a modern container terminal community. In comparing the models, it is shown that containerization has transformed the fragmented breakbulk operation of the 1960s into the cohesive container terminal community that today facilitates port operations. The paper concludes by examining trends in key inter-organizational relationships in the community and the emergence of eBusiness.

Container Shipping And Ports: An Overview

“…Robinson (2002) places the role of seaports within a new paradigm of ports as elements in value-driven chain systems. Notteboom and Winkelmans (2001b) and Heaver et al (2000) primarily discussed the changing role of port authorities in the new logistic-restructured environment, while Martin and Thomas (2001) addressed structural changes in the container terminal community. demonstrates how the organisational restructuring of the container shipping industry is taking place against the backdrop of logistics.…”

80 million-twenty-foot-equivalent-unit container port? Sustainability issues in port and coastal development

“…The challenge of providing sufficient capacity is often exacerbated by significant volatility in actualised container throughput attributed to variations in global trade from the demand perspective (Fung, 2001), lower loyalty of shipping companies in a particular port (Perez-Labajos and Blanco, 2004), and involvement by a bigger community of stakeholders which include environmentalists (Martin and Thomas, 2001) among other issues.…”

An analytical framework for managing container terminals

“…Under these diversified port service market segments, the balance of power has moved in favour of the shipping lines, which can exert pressure on ports to improve productivity and capacity (Martin and Thomas, 2001). The success of liner services in a hub-and-spoke system resulting from economies of scale achieved at sea should not be negated by diseconomies of scale in ports.…”

“…Over the past few decades, technological developments have considerably altered the organisational relationships within the port community. Martin and Thomas (2001) identified the interorganisational relationships of players in the container transport chain as follows:…”