Information Exchange between Deep Sea Container Terminals and Hinterland Parties

Transcription

1 Information Exchange between Deep Sea Container Terminals and Hinterland Parties The information needs of hinterland parties and the impact of information exchange Ilse Menger April 2016

2 I

3 Information Exchange between Deep Sea Container Terminals and Hinterland Parties The information needs of hinterland parties and the impact of information exchange Master Thesis I. (Ilse) Menger Student number: April 2016 Master Civil Engineering Track Transport & Planning Delft University of Technology Graduation committee: Prof. dr. ir. B. van Arem Delft University of Technology Dr. B. Wiegmans Delft University of Technology H. Van de Kamp, MSc APM Terminals J. Schaap, MSc APM Terminals Prof. dr. R.A. Zuidwijk Rotterdam School of Management Ir. P.B.L. Wiggenraad Delft University of Technology All photos of the APMT MVII terminal in this report are published with the permission of APMT MVII. II

4 III

5 Preface This graduation project is the last part of the Master of Science in Civil Engineering, track Transport and Planning. This report is the result of a research to the information needs of the actors in the hinterland of the Port of Rotterdam. The research is partly performed at APM Terminals Maasvlakte II and partly at Delft University of Technology. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to do my graduate internship at APM Terminals Maasvlakte II. It was a great experience to work at a deep sea container terminal. I want to thank Erik and Jouke for their support. Furthermore I would like to thank my supervisiors at the TU Delft, Bart van Arem and Paul Wiggenraad. Special thanks to Bart Wiegmans for his support, discussions and reviews on my report. I also want to thank Rob Zuidwijk from the Rotterdam School of Management. For this research I applied several research methods, which I could not have done without the help of others. For the gate survey I would like to thank the gate employees of APM Terminals Maasvlakte II to fill out the survey again and again. For the interviews and questionnaires I want to thank all hinterland parties who participated. I also thank everybody who participated in my serious game. Finally I want to thank my family and friends for their continuous support during my master thesis. Special thanks to Konstanze and Rob, for reviewing my report en their feedback. Ilse Menger Rotterdam, April 2016 IV

6 V

7 Executive summary Introduction and problem definition In the past most deep sea terminals reasoned just from their own point of view, or from the shipping line s point of view. This was because terminals want to maximise their own benefits and the shipping lines are the main customers. Nowadays the focus of deep sea terminals is more and more on hinterland transport to differentiate from competitors. This master thesis focusses on the improvement of information exchange between deep sea terminals and hinterland parties. When the problems of hinterland parties regarding information exchange are analysed three problem categories can be distinguished: 1. A lack of information about the container status 2. A lack of information about the transportation means 3. A lack of information about the deep sea terminal There can be one overall problem defined: "Regarding information, the deep sea terminal is a black box for hinterland parties. Therefore they make their decisions based on incomplete information". Therefore the information needs of hinterland parties are investigated in this master thesis. The main research question is defined as: What are the information needs of hinterland parties and how important are these information types for them?. Transport chain The focus of this report is on information exchange within the transport chain. The transport chain starts when the container is closed after loading the order shipment and ends when the container is opened at its final destination; the transport chain includes all the transport and handlings in between. The transport chain can be divided into three parts: the export transport chain from the factory to the deep sea terminal, the (deep) sea shipping, and the import transport chain from the deep sea terminal to the importer. The import transport chain is given in Figure I. When the container is discharged at the deep sea terminal it is transported to the importer with unimodal or intermodal transport. Unimodal transport is most times performed with a truck, intermodal transport with a barge and a truck. The export transport chain is organised in the same way. The container is transported by barge and/or truck to the deep sea terminal, where it is loaded on a (deep) sea vessel. The export transport chain is not further described in this summary to prevent duplicated information. Transport by train is outside the scope of this research. FIGURE I IMPORT TRANSPORT CHAIN There are multiple actors involved in the transport chain: Exporter. The exporter is the sender and most times also the manufacturer of the cargo inside the container. Shipping line. The shipping line mainly performs (deep) sea transport between deep sea terminals. Usually the shipping line provides the container for transport. Deep sea terminal. The deep sea terminal tranships the containers between (deep) sea vessels and hinterland modalities. VI

8 Barge operator. The barge operator provides transport by barge between the deep sea terminal and the inland terminal. Inland terminal. The inland terminal tranships the container between two hinterland modalities (in this report barge and truck). Sometimes inland terminals also have their own barges and trucks or they make the bookings for the first/last mile transport. Truck operator. The truck operator provides transport by truck between the deep sea terminal, inland terminal, importer, exporter, factory, and warehouse. Freight forwarder. The role of the freight forwarder differs per region. In the hinterland of Rotterdam, the freight forwarders are mostly hired by exporters or importers to make the bookings for the (deep) sea transport and/or the hinterland transport between the Port of Rotterdam and the importer or exporter. Importer. The importer is the buyer and receiver of the cargo inside the container. Custom authorities. The custom authorities assess the risk of the cargo inside the containers. Information flows in the transport chain Between the different actors in the transport chain there are multiple information flows that can be divided in two types. The first type are flows between the hinterland parties that are necessary to organize transport, those flows are given in Figure II for the intermodal import chain. Confirmation of booking 5 2 Make booking for hinterland transport Truck operator Inland terminal 4 Make booking for truck transport 3 Make booking for barge transport Barge operator 11 Feedback appointment Make appointment to pick up 10 container(s) Deep sea terminal Freight forwarder Request for transport 6 1 Confirmation of booking Importer Import documents 7 Custom Authorities Custom approval or holds 8 Make booking at the terminal 9 Shipping line Physical flow Information flow FIGURE II FLOWS BETWEEN HINTERLAND PARTIES MULTIMODAL IMPORT TRANSPORT CHAIN The orange lines indicate the physical flow of the container (as in Figure I) and the blue lines indicate the information flows between the different actors. The numbers 1 to 11 indicate the chronological order of the information flows. The second type of information flows are information flows between the deep sea terminal and the hinterland parties. These information flows can be divided into five information groups: container characteristics, container status, estimated times of arrival and departure (deep) sea vessels, terminal appointments and terminal closures. This report focusses information exchange between the deep sea terminal and hinterland parties. The information needs and wants of 5 actor groups are investigated: the barge operators, truck VII

9 operators, freight forwarder, importers and exporters. There is no information exchange between inland terminals and deep sea terminals (unless the inland terminals is also a barge operator), so the inland terminals are not taken into account. The custom authorities are also not taken into account because they are an authority and can ask what they want to know. The information needs of the shipping lines are not investigated in this research, because the shipping line is not a hinterland party. This report contains a literature review on information in general and on information in transport chains. Both are summarized below. Literature review on information in general Although there is literature about information in transport, the term information is not defined in this literature. The definition of information is given in several other sources. These definitions are combined for one definition of information that is used in this report: Edited or processed data provided about something or someone that enhances your knowledge. This is a broad definition and to provide more overview the information needs to be categorised. In this report categorisations based on level and on moment in time are used. The information levels are: 1. Information about containers 2. Information about transportation means 3. Information about deep sea terminals The categorisation based on moment in time consist of the following categories: 1. Fixed information 2. Information about the history 3. Information about the current status 4. Information about predictions and future events Literature review on information in container transport chains Literature shows the need for information exchange in the container transport chain. A reliable container transport chain contains as few uncertainties as possible. There are two methods to reduce uncertainties in transport planning. The first method is to get more information about the activities of the customers and suppliers to balance demand and supply. The second method is better communication between the partners in the transport chain, to have a sooner response from the transport chain members about changes. Both methods are based on better communication and information exchange. Literature shows that more or better exchange of information could lead to a more reliable transport chain, higher utilization of resources, improved transport chain integration, more efficiency in the transport chain, a modal shift towards barge transport, and improved competitive positions of companies. There is not much written about the information types that could be exchanged, but examples of information types as mentioned in literature are the location of the products/containers and the conditions of the products. Therefore this research is focussed on the information types that are wanted and/or needed by hinterland parties and their importance. Methodologies The information needs and wants of the hinterland parties are determined with several methods, as showed in Figure III. The different information types that are wanted and/or needed by hinterland parties are determined with a gate survey and interviews. The importance of those information types VIII

10 is determined with interviews and questionnaires. The impact of information on the transport chain is determined with a serious game. These methods are shortly described below. The goal of the gate survey is to determine the current lack of information. When hinterland parties face a problem because of a lack of information, they will call the terminal gate for the missing information. These phone calls are registered over multiple days with a survey. This survey contains three important questions: the modality, the topic of the phone call and if the answer of the question could have been found online. The result of the gate survey is a list of information types that are wanted and/or needed by hinterland parties. Which information types are wanted and/or needed by hinterland parties? Gate survey Interviews What is the importance of those information types? Interviews Questionnaires What would be the impact of information sharing on the transport chain? Serious game FIGURE III RESEARCH METHODS The interviews have two goals: to determine the information needs of hinterland parties and to discover what information types are important for hinterland parties and why. In total 21 interviews have been conducted. The first four interviews were pre-interviews in order to get a better overview of the problems and information needs and wants of the hinterland parties. The last 17 interviews are used for this research; 3 interviews per actor group except the 5 interviews with barge operators. The interviews were free-attitude interviews, which means that there is just one question to start. The rest of the interview only follow up questions were asked. The first question was: Which improvements in information exchange with the deep sea terminal do you want?. A free-attitude interview could be hard when the interviewee is not very talkative, therefore some interviews were semi-structured interviews. The result of the gate survey and the interviews is a list of information types. The importance of the information types is determined with questionnaires containing two methods of importance ranking. Firstly, the hinterland parties should rank each information type on importance from 1 to 7. Secondly they had to divide 100 points over all information types in each level (container level, transportation mean level and deep sea terminal level). More important information types will get more points. The questionnaire was sent to 75 hinterland parties, 15 per actor group (barge operators, truck operators, freight forwarders, importers and exporters). 20 hinterland parties filled out the questionnaire, which results in a response rate of 27%. The response rates per actor group are low for exporters and freight forwarders. Therefore only the barge IX

11 operators, truck operators and importers are analysed per actor group. The responses from the exporters and freight forwarders are taken into account for the average over all actor groups. The last methodology is a serious game. This game is designed to determine the impact of providing information to hinterland parties. It would take too much time to determine the impact of all information types, therefore only one information type is used for the game. From previous results of this research can be concluded that hinterland parties would like to know the crowdedness on the terminal to make an estimation of how long it will take to pick up or deliver a container. Therefore the information type for the game is the truck turnaround time as predicted by the deep sea terminal. The player of the game has the role of a truck planner at a truck operator. The player has 5 available trucks to transport 20 containers from deep sea terminal to importer. Results: Information needs of hinterland parties and the importance of information The results of the gate survey, interviews, and questionnaires are the information needs of hinterland parties. The most important information types per level are given in Table I. TABLE I MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION TYPES AND THEIR IMPORTANCE ON SCALE FROM 1 TO 7 Containers Transportation means Deep sea terminal 1. Pre-check container available (6,8) 2. Confirmation import container discharged from (deep) sea vessel (6,7) 3. Documents OK (6,7) 4. Container status for custom holds (6,6) 5. Presence container at deep sea terminal (6,6) 1. Delays (deep) sea vessels (6,8) 2. Estimated time of arrival (deep) sea vessel (ETA) (6,5) 3. Actual time of arrival (deep) sea vessel (ATA) (6,4) 4. Progress of discharging/loading (deep) sea vessel (6,0) 5. Changes in cargo cut off time (5,7) 1. Closures at deep sea terminal (6,8) 2. Malfunctions at deep sea terminal (6,5) 3. IT outage at deep sea terminal (6,3) 4. Explanation of different types of custom holds (6,2) 5. Barometer for crowdedness at the truck gate deep sea terminal (5,9) The information types at container level are mainly focused on the container status or information types that help to make a better prediction of when a container could be picked up or delivered. At transportation mean level the information needs are mostly concerned with the arrival and departure times of the (deep) sea vessels, the delays of (deep) sea vessels, and the consequences of those delays (e.g. changes in cargo cut off time). The information needs regarding transportation means are mainly to make better predictions at container level. The information needs regarding the deep sea terminal are the closures and malfunctions of the terminal and the explanation of the different types of custom holds. The crowdedness at the terminal also got a high score and is important to know for hinterland parties. Results: The impact of information The impact of providing information to hinterland parties was determined with a serious game. The game showed that providing information about the predicted truck turnaround times could lead to an efficiency improvement; up to 7% more containers could be delivered on time. With this efficiency improvement trucks can make more trips in the same time. The game showed that planners make other choices when they have more information. People tend to choose for containers and terminals with low truck turnaround times. But the participants mostly looked to the truck turnaround times at the moment when they pick up a container. They did not look always to future truck turnaround times. Conclusions The information needs and the reasons why the information types are important, are analysed. From the important information types as mentioned in Table I and the most important information types X

12 per actor group four different groups of information can be distinguished that are important to hinterland parties. These groups are placed in Table II per information level. TABLE II INFORMATION NEEDS OF HINTERLAND PARTIES: IMPORTANT INFORMATION GROUPS Containers Transportation means Deep sea terminal 1. Container status 2. Moment of availability container 3. Crowdedness at the deep sea terminal 4. Status terminal These groups of information are further explained below: 1. Container status. This group contains information about the releasement of a container, customs holds, reefer temperatures and other statuses. 2. Moment of availability container. This group contains all information that can be used to make an estimation of when a container will be available. This could be for example the arrival and departure times of (deep) sea vessels, the progress of discharging/loading a (deep) sea vessel, the expected time of discharge and the expected time for custom scans. 3. Crowdedness at the deep sea terminal. Thee are all information types about the crowdedness at the truck gate and the crowdedness at the barge quay. Hinterland parties want to know the crowdedness because they want to make an estimation of the truck turnaround times, and they have more information about the waiting times at the barge quay and the vessel planning for barges. 4. Status terminal. This is information about closures and malfunction at the deep sea terminal. When the terminal is closed, this directly influences the operations of hinterland parties and therefore these information types are important to know. There are no information groups at transportation mean level. This is because all information about the transportation means would be used to make estimations at container level. XI

13 Table of contents Preface... IV Executive summary... VI List of Figures... XVII List of Tables... XVIII Definitions... XIX List of abbreviations... XX 1 Introduction The motivation for the research Problem definition Research questions Scope of the research Structure of the report Container terminal hinterland transport: Flows, actors and information Container chains: Supply, logistic and transport chains Physical flows in the transport chain Export transport chain Import transport chain Actors in hinterland transport Actors in the transport chain Other actors in hinterland container transport Information flows in the import transport chain Information flows to organise the unimodal transport chain Information flows to organise the intermodal transport chain Information flows between the deep sea terminal and hinterland parties Conclusion XII

14 3 Literature review about information in transport chains and research methods Information in transport chains Definition of information Categorisation of information Information exchange in public transport chains Differences and similarities between container transport and public transport Information in public transport Influence of public transport information on travel behaviour Challenges in public transport information exchange Information exchange in container transport chains Information in container transport Influence of information on container transport Challenges in container transport information exchange Methods to determine the information needs and the impact of information Gate survey Interviews with hinterland parties Questionnaires Serious game Conclusion Conclusion Information needs and the importance of information Research methods Gate survey Interviews Questionnaires Information about containers The information types wanted and needed by hinterland parties The importance of the information types Most important information types Information about transportation means The information types wanted and needed by hinterland parties The importance of the information types Conclusion Information about deep sea terminals XIII

15 4.4.1 The information types wanted and needed by hinterland parties The importance of the information types Conclusion Most important information types Conclusion The impact of providing the predicted truck turnaround times Development of the game Predicted truck turnaround times Goal of the game Requirements for the game Simplifications in the game Design of the game Results of the game Responses Efficiency of the transport chain Choice moments in the game Conclusion Conclusions Conclusion Discussion Reflection of the research methods Results Recommendations Recommendations for further research Recommendations for APMT MVII Reference list Appendix A. Information flows container export chains Appendix B. Gate survey Appendix C. Pre-interviews with hinterland parties XIV

16 Appendix D. Interviews Appendix E. Questionnaires Appendix F. Design of the game Appendix G. Results game XV

17 XVI

18 List of Figures Figure I Import transport chain... VI Figure II Flows between hinterland parties multimodal import transport chain... VII Figure III Research methods... IX Figure 1.1 Gross list of important information problems in hinterland transport... 2 Figure 1.2 Structure of the report... 5 Figure 2.1 Transport chain export containers... 8 Figure 2.2 Transport chain import containers... 8 Figure 2.3 Actors in the import transport chain... 9 Figure 2.4 Symbols other actors Figure 2.5 Flows unimodal transport Figure 2.6 Flows intermodal transport Figure 3.1 Information scale: static dynamic based on Grotenhuis et al (2007); and discussions with H. van de Kamp, APMT MVII Figure 3.2 Research methods Chapter 4 and Figure 4.1 Actors in the import transport chain Figure A Flows unimodal transport Source: Powerpoint presentation CDP Strategy Figure B Flows intermodal transport Source: Powerpoint presentation CDP Strategy Figure C Topics phone calls Figure D Was the hinterland party able to find the answer online? Figure E Was the hinterland partie able to find the answer online? Split out over levels Figure F Map for serioud game Figure G Containers for serious game Figure H Game board serious game Figure I Truck logbook serious game XVII

19 List of Tables Table I Most important information types and their importance on scale from 1 to 7... X Table II Information needs of hinterland parties: important information groups... XI Table III List of abbreviations... XX Table 4.1 Responses questionnaires Table 4.2 Information needs about containers Table 4.3 Importance of the information types about containers determined from the questionnaires Table 4.4 Most important information types about containers per actor group Table 4.5 Information needs about transportation means Table 4.6 Importance of the information types about transportation means - determined from the questionnaires Table 4.7 Most important information types about transportation means per actor group Table 4.8 Information needs about deep sea terminals Table 4.9 Importance of the information types about the deep sea terminal - determined from the questionnaires Table 4.10 Most important information types about deep sea terminals per actor group Table 4.11 Most important information types Table 5.1 Results game for the transport chain Table 5.2 Choice moment Table 5.3 Choice moment Table 5.4 Containers choice moment Table 5.5 Choice moment Table 6.1 Most important information types - All actors and the importance on scale 1 to Table 6.2 Information needs of hinterland parties: important information groups Table A Number of pone calls per day Table B Number of phone calls per modality Table C Number of phone calls about containers, transportation means and terminal Table D Pre-interviews Table E Interviews Table F Responses questionnaire Table G REsult questionnaires truck operators and barge operators - Containers Table H Result questionnaires importers and all actors containers Table I Result questionnaires truck operators and barge operators - transportation mean Table J Result questionnaires importers and all actors - transportation means Table K Result questionnaires truck operators and barge operators - Deep sea terminal Table L Result questionnaires importers and all actors - deep sea terminal Table M Result questionnaires - most important information types "100 points scale" Table N Results game with information Table O Results game without information XVIII

20 Definitions Definitions of terms used in this report. Cargo Cut Off time (CCO): The last moment to deliver containers for a certain (deep) sea vessel. The CCO is determined by the shipping line for each vessel. After the CCO, hinterland parties are not able to deliver a container at the deep sea terminal for that specific vessel. For deep sea vessels a common CCO is 24 hours before the arrival of the vessel at the deep sea terminal. Extern Terminal Transport: The transport of containers between two deep sea terminals in the same port. Transport could be performed with all modalities. Export: Containers that have an origin in the hinterland of Rotterdam and will be transported, via Rotterdam, to overseas destinations. Those containers will be loaded on a (deep) sea vessel at the terminal. (Truck) gate: The entrance and exit of the deep sea terminal for trucks. Hinterland: All continental destinations of containers unloaded at the deep sea terminal and continental origins of containers loaded at the deep sea terminal. Hinterland parties: All companies and persons in the part of the transport chain between hinterland and the gate of the deep sea terminal. Import: Containers that have an origin overseas and will be transported, via Rotterdam, to a destination in the hinterland of Rotterdam. Those containers will be unloaded from the (deep) sea vessel at the terminal. Intermodal transport: Transport that is performed with multiple modalities. Pre-announcement: Before a container could be delivered or picked-up, a pre-announcement should be made. Part of the pre-announcement is for example the custom documents and a reservation for a time slot. When a container does not have a right pre-announcement, the container could not be delivered or picked up at the terminal. Reefer: Refrigerated container. TAR code: A code which provides access to the terminal for a truck. One TAR code can contain the delivery or pick up of multiple containers. Truck turnaround time: The residence time of a truck at the deep sea terminal. The truck turnaround time is the time between gate in and gate out. Yard Opening Time (YOT): The first moment to deliver containers for a certain (deep) sea vessel. The YOT is determined by the shipping line for each vessel. Before the YOT, hinterland parties are not able to deliver a container for that specific vessel. XIX

21 List of abbreviations TABLE III LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS APMT MVII ATA ATD CCO CDP ETA ETD ETT PA PCS TAR YOT APM Terminals Maasvlakte II Actual Time of Arrival Actual Time of Departure Cargo Cut Off Customer Dialogue Platform Estimated Time of Arrival Estimated Time of Departure Extern Terminal Transport Pre-announcement Port Community System Truck Appointment Reference Yard opening time XX

22 XXI

23 1 Introduction This section gives an introduction to this research on the information needs of hinterland parties in container transport. First the motivation behind the research is described, in order to provide some background information. Secondly, the problem is defined, followed by the research questions. Also the scope of the research and the structure of the report are be described. 1.1 The motivation for the research APM Terminals has opened a new terminal on Maasvlakte II. This terminal has a high level of automation, which enables the terminal to reach a high level of productivity, sustainability and safety. One of the aims of the APMT MVII terminal is to distinguish itself from competitors by clarity and transparency in dedicated information provision about container status and planning. APMT MVII wants to serve their hinterland parties better by providing them with pro-active, relevant and accurate information. For this, the terminal also needs to know as precisely as possible how and when containers will be picked up for hinterland transport or will be delivered at the terminal. In the past most deep sea terminals reasoned only from their own point of view, or from the shipping line s point of view. This was because the terminal wants to maximise its own benefits and the shipping line is the main customer of the terminal. The payment of the shipping line to the deep sea terminal includes the (un)loading from (deep) sea vessel and hinterland mode and the storage. In general hinterland parties do not pay the terminal, therefore there was not much attention for them. In this research, the information needs of hinterland parties are investigated, because they are becoming more and more important. This is because it is hard to differentiate from competitors on (deep) sea transport and handling, therefore terminals and shipping lines are investigating more in the hinterland network. 1

24 1.2 Problem definition Multiple challenges can be distinguished in the process of information exchange between deep sea terminals and hinterland parties, see Figure 1.1 for an extensive overview. In the left column a gross list of important practical problems is listed. This list is based in personal communication and discussions with APMT MVII employees, and the pre-interviews as described in Section 3. BO/TO: Unknown when a container is available or could be picked up BO/TO: Indistinctness about the container (custom) status: only known after preannouncement BO: The cancellation of containers because import containers are not available or missing documents for export containers Ex/Im: Not able to see the temperature of reefers... BO/TO/IM/FF: Planning is based on ETD (deep) sea vessel, which causes a lot of hidden delays BO: Exact amount of containers is not known in advance, so always PA for more containers than scheduled Indistinctness about the ETA/ ETD/CCO/YOT and delays... BO: Given time slots are often later than the requested ones. In case of calls at multiple terminals this causes problems in the planning TO: No insight in waiting times at the gate... Lack of information about the container status Lack of information about transportation means Lack of information about the deep seaterminal BO: Barge operator TO: Truck operator IM: Importer EX: Exporter FF: Freight forwarder Regarding information, the terminal is a black box for hinterland parties. They make their decisions based on incomplete information FIGURE 1.1 GROSS LIST OF IMPORTANT INFORMATION PROBLEMS IN HINTERLAND TRANSPORT The list of problems is endless; when some problems are solved, new ones will come up. So this list contains just some examples. The problems can be divided in three levels, as indicated in the middle column: Lack of information about the container status. These problems deal with unknown statuses of containers, incorrect custom documentation and arrival and departure times of containers. Lack of information about the transportation means. These are problems about the planning of trucks and barges, but also issues related to the arrival and departure times of deep sea vessels. 2

25 Lack of information about the deep sea terminal. This category contains problems about the barge planning and the lack of insight in waiting times and turnaround times. One overall problem can be distinguished: Regarding information, the deep sea terminal is a black box for hinterland parties. They make their decisions based on incomplete information. 1.3 Research questions As stated in the problem definition, hinterland parties make their decisions based on incomplete information. Currently it is unknown which information hinterland parties need and want to organise hinterland transport as good as possible. Therefore, it will be investigated what the information needs of hinterland parties are and how important the different information types are. The following main research question is devised: What are the information needs of hinterland parties and how important are these information types for them? This research question is divided in the following sub-questions: 1. How is the hinterland transport organised and which information is currently involved in hinterland transport? 2. What is already known in literature about information exchange in transport chains? 3. Which methods can be used to determine the information needs of hinterland parties and the importance and impact of information? 4. Which information types do hinterland parties want to receive from the deep sea terminal? 5. How important are the different information types for the hinterland parties? 6. What would be the impact of sharing information between the deep sea terminal and hinterland parties? 1.4 Scope of the research The transport chain of a container starts at a manufacturer or seller of the product and ends at a warehouse or buyer. The starting point and end point could be everywhere on the earth and the route between them can be made with different transport modality combinations. The focus of this report will be on the APMT MVII container terminal in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. This is because the research is commissioned by this terminal. Only the parts of the transport chain which are in the hinterland of the Port of Rotterdam are taken into account. This still means that there are import and export containers, but the transport chain starts or ends at the deep sea terminal. The information needs and wants of the shipping lines are not taken into account, because the focus of this research is on hinterland parties. To further delimit the scope, container transport by train is not taken into account. This is due to the fact that rail is the least used mode for hinterland transport in Rotterdam. Also, only the modality that picks up or delivers the container at the deep sea terminal is taken into account. This means that the information needs inland terminals 1 and first/last mile trucks are not in the scope of this research. 1 Some inland terminals are also barge operators. In that case they are taken into account as a barge operator. 3

26 1.5 Structure of the report This report first gives an overview of the current situation in chapter 2. It starts with an explanation of the different chains and a more elaborated explanation of the transport chain: the flows and actors. Also the current situation in information exchange will be described. In chapter 3 a literature review concerning the information exchange in transport chains is presented. It gives a general introduction about information. Highlighted topics are the information exchange in transport and methodologies to determine the information needs and the importance and impact of information. In chapter 4 the information needs of hinterland parties and the importance of the different of information types are described. The chapter starts with a section of how the methods as described in chapter 3 are performed. The results contain the information needs of hinterland parties and the importance of information. The results are presented by the categorisation levels: containers, transportation means and deep sea terminal. One of the information types that are important for hinterland parties is the crowdedness on the terminal. In chapter 5 the impact of providing information on the expected truck turnaround times is determined. In chapter 6 the conclusion, discussion, reflection, and recommendations for further research are given. The structure of the report is graphically displayed in Figure

27 Chapter 2 Description current situation 1. How is the hinterland transport organised and which information is currently involved in hinterland transport? Chapter 3 Literature review 2. What is already known in literature about information exchange in transport chains? 3. Which methods could be used to determine the information needs of hinterland parties and the impact of information? Chapter 4 Information needs 4. Which information types do hinterland parties want to receive form the deep sea terminal? 5. How important are the different information types for the hinterland parties? Chapter 5 Impact of information 6. What would be the impact of sharing information about the predicted truck turnaround times? Chapter 6 Conclusions What are the information needs of hinterland parties and how important are these information types for them? FIGURE 1.2 STRUCTURE OF THE REPORT 5

28 6

29 2 Container terminal hinterland transport: Flows, actors and information In this chapter the current organisation of hinterland transport is described. Therefore the first section explains the difference between the supply chain, logistic chain and transport chain. It concludes that only the transport chain is taken into account in this research. The transport chain contains physical flows of containers, actors in the transport chain who organise and/or perform the physicals flows, and information flows between the actors. These aspects are explained in the following sections of this chapter. 2.1 Container chains: Supply, logistic and transport chains When analysing the container chain, a distinction should made between supply chain, logistic chain and transport chain (Ramstedt and Woxenius, 2006). The supply chain is focussed on the product in the whole integrated chain of actors, activities and resources. Stevens (1989) defined the supply chain as the connected series of activities which is concerned with planning, coordination and controlling material, parts and finished goods from supplier to the customer. Coyle et al. (1994) defined the logistic chain as the integrated perception of production, transport and market place. The supply chain is broader than the logistic chain, because the supply chain also contains supplier management, purchasing, materials management, manufacturing management, facilities planning, manufacturing management facilities planning and customer service (Stevens, 1989). The transport chain is narrower than the logistic chain. According to Zuidwijk and Veenstra (n.d.), the container transport chain starts when the container is closed after loading the order shipment. The container transport chain ends when the container is opened at its final destination. The supply chain and logistic chain are broader and within these chains also information will be exchanged which is out of the reach and scope of the deep sea terminal. Therefore the focus of this report is put only on the container transport chain. 7

30 2.2 Physical flows in the transport chain A transport chain contains an export part between exporter and (deep) sea shipping and an import part between the (deep) sea shipping and the importer. In this research they are called the export transport chain and the import transport chain. The physical container flows in these transport chains are described in this section Export transport chain The transport chain starts at the shipper or factory where the cargo is loaded into the container. This could also be at a warehouse. From this point the container will be transported to a deep sea terminal. This could be by unimodal transport, which means that the container is transported from factory to terminal by just one modality; most times this is a truck. Another option for transport between factory and terminal is intermodal transport. This means that the container is first transported with a truck to an inland terminal. From the inland terminal the containers are transported by barge to the deep sea terminal. At the deep sea terminal the container will be loaded on a (deep) sea vessel. The export transport chain is graphically represented in Figure 2.1. FIGURE 2.1 TRANSPORT CHAIN EXPORT CONTAINERS Import transport chain The transport chain for import containers starts when the (deep) sea vessel arrives at the deep sea terminal. The terminal unloads the container and loads it on a hinterland modality. Again, this could be unimodal or intermodal transport. The hinterland modalities will transport the container, optionally via an inland terminal, to the consignee/importer. The transport chain for import containers is given in Figure 2.2. FIGURE 2.2 TRANSPORT CHAIN IMPORT CONTAINERS Note that another possibility for hinterland transport is rail (both for import and export). In this case the container is transported by train between the deep sea terminal and the inland terminal. A truck will perform the transport between the inland terminal and origin/destination. Because rail is outside the scope of this research, it was not taken into account in the (theoretical) description of the transport chain. From this section onwards, the focus will be on the import transport chain. This is because describing both the export and import flows will result in duplicated information. Because there is more import in The Netherlands, this is the most logical chain to further elaborate on. The export transport chain will be further explained in appendix A. 8

31 2.3 Actors in hinterland transport In the transport chain, multiple actors are involved. These actors are described below Actors in the transport chain There are several actors involved in the transport chain. Most actors were mentioned in Figure 2.2. In Figure 2.3 the export transport chain is given again, but now with more focus on the individual actors. Barge operator Inland terminal Truck operator Shipping line Deep sea terminal Importer Truck operator FIGURE 2.3 ACTORS IN THE IMPORT TRANSPORT CHAIN The shipping line mainly performs (deep) sea transport between ports. Sometimes they also have a department for inland transport, but this is not taken into account in this report. Usually the shipping line provides the container for transport. Also the (deep sea) vessels are most times owned and operated by the shipping line. The shipping line transports the container to the deep sea terminal. Van den Berg (2015) defined deep sea terminals as nodes where different players interact with each other to transfer the goods from one transport mode to another. According to Wiegmans (2003) the main terminal services are the loading and unloading of containers from (deep) sea vessels and hinterland transport modes. These are the basic ship-shore operations. A terminal with a high degree of integration in the transport chain also provides services like container repairing and cleaning, empty depots and container renting, leasing or selling services (Wiegmans, 2003; Panayides and Song, 2009). In case of intermodal transport the container will be picked up at the deep sea terminal by a barge operator, who will transport the container to an inland terminal. An inland terminal tranships the container between the truck and the barge. Inland terminals could also have a storage function for (empty) containers. In the hinterland of the Port of Rotterdam, it is common that inland terminals organise the intermodal hinterland transport. Some inland terminals have their own barges, but often they ask a dedicated barge operator to handle the barge transport. The inland terminals also book the first or last mile transport by a truck operator or perform the first or last mile transport with own trucks. It is also possible that the truck operator performs the whole hinterland transport to the importer (unimodal transport) Other actors in hinterland container transport Besides the above described actors, there are three other important actors: exporters, freight forwarders and custom authorities. The symbols used for these actors are given in Figure 2.4. The importer is the buyer of the cargo inside the container. In case of semi-finished products, the importer might use them to produce end products and sell them again. 9

32 The role of the freight forwarder differs per region (Ducruet and Van der Horst, 2009). In the hinterland of Rotterdam, the freight forwarders are mostly hired by exporters or importers to coordinate the door to door transport chain. This means making the bookings for the (deep) sea transport and the hinterland transport. Sometimes freight forwarders also have distribution and transport documents tasks (Ducruet and Van der Horst, 2009; Coyle et al, 2011). The tasks of the forwarder could also be fulfilled by the shipping line s agency. The custom authorities assess the risk of containers. When the risk is too high, the custom authorities are responsible for container inspections. When there is less or no risk for a container, the custom authorities will release the container for further transport (Zuidwijk and Veenstra, n.d.). Exporter Freight forwarder Custom Authorities FIGURE 2.4 SYMBOLS OTHER ACTORS 2.4 Information flows in the import transport chain There are several information types about a container or about container transport, that are exchanged between the actors mentioned in the previous section. This section first describes the information flows which are necessary to organise transport. In Subsection the information flows for unimodal transport are explained, in Subsection the information flows for intermodal transport are given. The information flows for the export transport chain are given in appendix A. Besides the information flows that are necessary to organise transport, there are more types of information that are exchanged between the actors, these are described in Section Information flows to organise the unimodal transport chain In Figure 2.3 the transport chain and the actors were given for both unimodal and intermodal transport. In this section the unimodal and intermodal transport chains are split and the information flows are added. For unimodal transport this is done in Figure 2.5. The unimodal truck flow from Figure 2.3 (shipping line deep sea terminal truck operator - importer) is placed in a semi-circle, with the same orange lines for the physical flows. The blue lines were added to give an overview of the information flows. 10

33 Truck operator Make appointment to pick up 8 container(s) 9 Confirmation of booking 3 2 Make booking for truck transport Feedback appointment Deep sea terminal Custom approval or holds 6 7 Commercial releasements Freight forwarder Request for transport 1 4 Confirmation of booking Importer Import documents 5 Custom Authorities Shipping line Physical flow Information flow FIGURE 2.5 FLOWS UNIMODAL TRANSPORT SOURCE: POWERPOINT PRESENTATION CDP STRATEGY The importer receives information from the exporter or freight forwarder about the container and (deep) sea shipping. For readability this is not included in Figure 2.5. When the importer receives the shipping details, he asks the freight forwarder to book the hinterland transport 2 (1). The freight forwarder makes a booking at the truck operator (2), who sends a confirmation of booking back to the freight forwarder (3). The freight forwarder informs the importer that the hinterland booking is done (4). Now the importer sends the import documents to the custom authorities (5). Sometimes this is done by the freight forwarder. The custom authorities communicate to the deep sea terminal about custom releases or holds on the container (6). The shipping line also communicates with the deep sea terminal about the commercial releasements of the container (7). Number 6 and 7 may happen in reversed order. When the container is released, the truck operator makes an appointment at the terminal to pick up the container (8). The deep sea terminal gives feedback on this appointment request (9). When this is done, all necessary information is exchanged and the container can be picked up by the truck operator Information flows to organise the intermodal transport chain In Figure 2.3 the transport chain and actors are also given for intermodal transport. Again, these actors were placed in a semi-circle with the orange line between them to indicate the physical flows (see Figure 2.6). 2 There are several options for organising transport by freight forwarders. A freight forwarder hired by the exporter could organise the whole transport chain, so including the hinterland transport oversees. It is also possible that a freight forwarder hired by the importer organises the whole transport chain. A third option is that two freight forwarders organise both a part of the transport chain. The exporter s freight forwarder organises transport until the (deep) sea transport. The importer s freight forwarder organises the hinterland transport from the deep sea terminal to the final destination. In this report only the last option is taken into account. 11

34 Confirmation of booking 5 2 Make booking for hinterland transport Truck operator Inland terminal 4 Make booking for truck transport 3 Make booking for barge transport Barge operator 11 Feedback appointment Make appointment to pick up 10 container(s) Deep sea terminal Freight forwarder Request for transport 6 1 Confirmation of booking Importer Import documents 7 Custom Authorities Custom approval or holds 8 Make booking at the terminal 9 Shipping line Physical flow Information flow FIGURE 2.6 FLOWS INTERMODAL TRANSPORT SOURCE: POWERPOINT PRESENTATION CDP STRATEGY The information flows necessary to organise intermodal transport are mostly the same as for unimodal transport (see Figure 2.5). An important difference is that there are more actors in intermodal transport who perform the hinterland transport. In unimodal transport the freight forwarders make a booking for hinterland transport at the truck operator, but in intermodal transport the hinterland transport is most times booked at the inland terminal (2). The inland terminal makes the bookings for barge transport (3) and truck transport (4), and sends a confirmation back to the freight forwarder (5). It is possible that the freight forwarder makes individual bookings at the barge operator and the truck operator, but in the hinterland of the Port of Rotterdam it is more common that the inland terminal books the inland transport. When the hinterland transport is arranged, the information flows (6-11) are the same as for unimodal transport (4-9), with the only difference that not the truck operator but the barge operator makes an appointment at the deep sea terminal Information flows between the deep sea terminal and hinterland parties Besides the information flows exchanged between the hinterland parties that are necessary to organise transport as described above, there are also some information types that are exchanged between the deep sea terminal and hinterland parties. These information flows are described in this subsection. Container characteristics Shared with: Truck operator, barge operator, freight forwarder, importer, exporter. Container characteristics include the container type, number, size, dangerous cargo etc. Most times this information is already known by all hinterland parties. Exporters and shipping lines identify most of those characteristics and communicate it with importers, deep sea terminals and freight forwarders. The freight forwarder and the deep sea terminal will inform the transport operators about the container characteristics. But although some of this information is already known at hinterland parties, the terminal still communicates this information, often via a web portal. 12

35 Container status Shared with: Truck operator, barge operator, freight forwarder, importer, exporter, custom authorities. Information about the container status could for example be (custom) releases or holds, whether the container is already (un)loaded, or the time gate in or gate out. ETA/ETD Deep sea vessels Shared with: Truck operator, barge operator, freight forwarder, importer, exporter. In the first place the estimated time of arrival and departure (ETA and ETD) of a (deep) sea vessel is communicated by the shipping line. But most times the ETA and ETD of (deep) sea vessels are also communicated by the deep sea terminal. Besides the estimated times, also the actual times of arrival and departure (ATA and ATD) are communicated by the terminal. Together with the ETA and ETD, the cargo cut-off time (CCO) and yard opening time (YOT) are communicated. These are determined and communicated by the shipping line, but are also communicated by the deep sea terminal. Terminal appointments Shared with: Truck operator, barge operator. Making a terminal appointment is not a one way communication, but a conversation between the deep sea terminal and transport operator. The transport operator will do a pre-announcement to ask for an appointment to pick up or deliver container(s) at the terminal and the terminal will answer if this is possible at the requested time. Often the custom documents are included in the preannouncement. Terminal closures Shared with: Truck operator, barge operator, freight forwarder, importer, exporter, custom authorities. When the terminal is closed this will be communicated with hinterland parties so that they can adjust their planning. Closures of the deep sea terminal could not only occur because of the opening times, but also due to malfunctions, weather conditions or other reasons. 2.5 Conclusion This chapter is a review on the flows, actors and information in the hinterland container transport. It provides an overview of how hinterland transport is organised. There is a difference between the supply, logistic and transport chains; the focus of this report is on the transport chain. In the transport chain the container goes from exporter, via a truck (and optionally inland terminal and barge) to the deep sea terminal, where the container is loaded on a (deep) sea vessel. The (deep) sea vessel brings the container to the port of destination, where the container is transhipped to a barge or truck for hinterland transport to the importer. Besides the mentioned actors, there are two more actors: freight forwarder and custom authorities. Between the different actors there are multiple information flows to organise the physical transport. These flows are given in Figure 2.5 and Figure 2.6. Besides the information that is exchanged between hinterland parties there is also information that is exchanged between hinterland parties and deep sea terminals. This information is about container characteristics, container status, ETA/ETD (deep) sea vessels, terminal appointments and terminal closures. It can be concluded that there are many different chains, flows, actors and information types, which make the situation unclear and challenging. 13

36 14

37 3 Literature review about information in transport chains and research methods This chapter gives a literature review on information and information exchange in transport chains. The first section describes information in transport chains in general. It gives the definition of information and a categorisation of information. Because there is not much written about information in container transport, Section 3.2 describes information exchange in public transport. This section is used to write Section 3.3 about information exchange in container transport. Section 3.4 describes methods to determine the information needs and the impact of information. 3.1 Information in transport chains This section about information in transport chains first gives the definition of information. Because information is a very broad term, the second part of this section will give a categorisation of information Definition of information Although there is literature about information in transport, the term information is not defined in this literature. The Oxford Dictionary defines information as: facts provided or learned about something or someone. This definition contains three aspects. The first one is that information is described as facts. For this research this definition is not complete since also estimations about future facts should be included, for example the estimated time of arrival (ETA). The second aspect is that those facts are defined as being provided or learned. The third aspect is that information is about something or someone. Besides the Oxford Dictionary there are more definitions of information. Larson made an information hierarchy (Tutorials Point, 2015a): Data: Raw material of information Information: Data organised and presented by someone Knowledge: Information read, heard, or seen, and understood 15

38 Wisdom: Distilled and integrated knowledge and understanding According to Larson, information is data that is edited or processed to something presentable. This could be facts, but also estimations could be included since they can be based on data. Receiving and understanding information will lead to more knowledge. But Larson s definition is not complete. The Dutch website gives the following definition of information (translated from Dutch): Data that enhance your knowledge. This definition confirms that information is about data and that it leads to more knowledge. When all these definitions are combined there can be made one overall definition: Edited or processed data provided about something or someone that enhances your knowledge This definition contains several aspects. The first is that information is about data that are edited or processed. The second one is that information should be provided. The third aspect is that information is about something or someone. In transport this could be for example passengers, containers, transportation means, nodes and infrastructure. The last aspect is that information enhances knowledge. With more knowledge about e.g. transport, alternatives or circumstances, better choices for transport could be made Categorisation of information There are different types of information, which can be classified in several ways. Classification can be for example by characteristics (Tutorials Point, 2015b): Strategic information: Information about long term policy planning. Tactical information: Information that could be used for exercising control over business resources. Operational information: Information at the operational business level. Because most information that will be discussed in this report will be operational information, almost all information types will be in the same class. Therefore this classification might not be very useful to structure the results. Another classification could be made in the quality of the information. The information which will be exchanged should be of a certain quality. Zhou and Benton (2007) stated that a better quality of the provided information increases the delivery performance. The quality of information is a measure of how well the exchanged information meets the information needs of the hinterland parties (Petersen, 1999, as cited in Zhou and Benton, 2007; Vanpoucke et al, 2009). Literature describes several measures for quality: accuracy, availability, frequency, timeliness, precision, reliability, completeness, relevance, and appropriate contents (Neumann and Segev, 1979; Bailey and Pearson, 1983; Zhou and Benton, 2007; Vanpoucke et al, 2009). Strong et al (1997) made a distinction in four levels of information quality. Most measures for the quality can be subdivided into these levels: Intrinsic: e.g. accuracy, objectivity, believability and reputation. Contextual: e.g. relevancy, value-added, timeliness, completeness and amount of information. Representational: e.g. interpretability, format, coherence, compatibility. Accessibility: e.g. accessibility and access security. Also this classification might not be very useful since it does not say anything about the content of the information. Therefore this classification does not provide a better overview in all the different types of information. Grotenhuis et al (2009) stated that information could be divided into static information, dynamic information and real-time information. But they did not discuss when 16

39 information is static, dynamic or real-time. Especially the boundary between dynamic information and real-time information is vague. Therefore in this report information is placed on a scale from static to dynamic, with real-time information as the highest degree of dynamic information (based on Grotenhuis et al, 2007; and discussions with H. van de Kamp). This scale is displayed in Figure 3.1. The most static information is fixed information. This information is known from the beginning of the transport chain and will not change during transport. One step further down the scale is information that is initially unknown, but changes just once and will become fixed information after this change. In the middle of the static dynamic scale is dialogues, which contains requests and answers on those requests. This could be seen as dynamic information provided in a static way: first ask for information and then receive the asked information. A bit more dynamic is information that can be found on websites or web portals. The most dynamic case is real-time information, available when and where it is needed. This scale seems very useful, but it is hard to place all information types on this scale. This is because the scale also says things about the way how information is provided. The same information could be received in a dialogue started by a request for information, but when communication methods will change the same type of information could also be real-time information. Therefore this scale is not used in this report. Another way to categorise information is to categorise in chronological order: Static Dynamic Fixed information Fixed information after 1 handling or request Dialogues Requests and answers Search for information or regular updates Real-time information FIGURE 3.1 INFORMATION SCALE: STATIC DYNAMIC BASED ON GROTENHUIS ET AL (2007); AND DISCUSSIONS WITH H. VAN DE KAMP, APMT Fixed information. This is information that does not change over time and will be true at any time moment in the transport chain. Examples are container type and number. History. This is information about events that happened in the past, for example the time and modality gate in/out. Status. Information about the current situation of an object. This could be for example whether the status of a container is OK or not. Predictions/future events. This information contains forecasts about future events or situations, for example the truck turnaround times at a terminal. This categorisation based on moment in time covers all information types and can give a logic and chronologic overview of the information types. Therefore this categorisation will be used in this research. The last way to categorise information is per level as defined in Section 1.2. These levels are: Container. This is information about individual containers. This information could be exchanged for multiple containers at the same time. Information about two different containers can be partly the same, but will never be completely the same. Transportation mean. This level contains information about the (deep) sea vessels, barges and trucks. Deep sea terminal. The information in the last level is about the terminal planning, capacity, status and other terminal information. 17

40 With these levels there are two categorisations used: categorisation on moment in time and categorisation per level. These scaled can form a table for the results. 3.2 Information exchange in public transport chains Due to the limited number of publications on information exchange in freight transport, the scope of the literature research has been extended to other fields of transportation in order to gain more insight into information exchange in the field of transportation in general. In the following, the way information is handled in the field of public transport is discussed Differences and similarities between container transport and public transport Although container transport and public transport might seem different, there are a couple of important similarities. The most important one is that for both, intermodal transport is very common and often used. While containers often travel by vessel(s), train and/or truck, important transportation means for public transport are train, bus, metro and tram. In both types of transport it is common to switch between transportation means during the trip, although this is an extra effort. In both transport types, the aim is to find fast, reliable and cheap routes. Another similarity is that the users of the transportation means, be it containers or passengers, do not own the transportation means. The transportation means are often shared with other containers or passengers, which make the transport more cost efficient. This brings the disadvantage that not all containers and passengers have the same origin and/or destination, which makes first and last mile transport, and thus extra transfers, necessary. Also the stages in the trips in container transport and public transport have similarities. Grotenhuis et al (2007) defined three stages of a public transport trip: pre-trip, wayside and on-board stages. The pre-trip is the stage before the trip, where the trip is prepared and planned. In container transport this is comparable with the stage before the container is transported for the first mile, often even before the container is loaded and closed. The wayside contains intermediate stops, like a bus stop or a train station. In container transport this could be an (inland) terminal. The on-board stage is when the passengers (or containers) are in the transportation mean to be transported. It is likely to assume that in container transport there will be a fourth stage, which could be called the after-trip stage. This stage is not important for public transport, because when people are transported, they obviously know if and when they have arrived. But it is conceivable that some actors in container transport want to know whether and when a container has arrived, while they are not the consignee of the container. A difference between container transport and public transport is that passengers in most cases are able to perform the first and last mile transport by themselves, for example by walking or by biking. Also with a transfer between transport modes, passengers can walk between the different vehicles themselves. Obviously, containers are not able to move by themselves, which shows the importance of terminals in the transport chain. The last difference is the value of (waiting)time. Trips in public transport are usually shorter in both distance and travel time. Also the waiting times at interchanges are often shorter in public transport. People want to switch transport modes in a couple of minutes, while it can take up to a couple of days for a container to switch modes Information in public transport There is a lot of information involved in transport. The passengers need for information in public transport depends on the degree of familiarity (Grotenhuis et al, 2007). The information use is often prerequisite to make a public transport trip, but Farag and Lyons (2010) stated that people usually only consult information when they think they might need it. So when someone is familiar with the transport mode and route, that person will use the available information less or not at all. In contrast 18

41 to container transport, in (modern) public transport it is very common to receive real-time information (Zito et al, 2011). There are several different functions of information mentioned in literature. The first one is to inform the user about the trip and alternatives for that trip. Accurate information can make it easier to plan and execute a journey, which can minimise the inconvenience of using public transport (Lyon and Harman, 2002; Kenyon and Lyon, 2003). The second is the challenging role, as defined by Kenyon and Lyons (2003). This role is based on the fact that there are knowledge and truths which are assumed. The challenging role is focussed on proving that these are not facts and that there are other alternatives or that it can be seen from a broader perspective. The last one, mentioned by Lyons and Harman (2002), is that information helps to promote public transport as an alternative for transport by car. Grotenhuis et al (2007) found that the most important information types for public transport passengers are different per stage. The pre-trip stage is the most favoured stage to receive information. In this stage, the most important information types are total travel time, all interchanges, all departure times and real time delay information. In the wayside stage the most important information types are real time delay information, route advice and platform information. In the last stage, the on-board stage, the most desired information types by passengers are real time delays, alterations and route advice Influence of public transport information on travel behaviour Information could have several effects on travellers. An improvement in information provision could lead to time savings and effort savings (Grotenhuis et al, 2007). With more information the traveller is able to make better choices and it reduces the uncertainties for the traveller (Chorus et al, 2006). Another often mentioned influence of information is the influence on mode choice. As mentioned before, public transport is often intermodal transport. This implies that there are multiple options in modes and routes for the same trip. According to Kenyon and Lyons (2003) there are four information related factors which play a role in modal choice: 1. Awareness of types of information 2. Awareness of the use of information 3. The perceived difficulty to gather information 4. The awareness of information sources. However, Kenyon and Lyons (2003) also stated that a lot of people do not think about their mode choice when they make a trip. Often this mode is chosen based on automation and habits. Habits are very important in trip types and modal choices for those trips. Also attitudes and past experiences have an important influence, especially on the choice between car and public transport (Farag and Lyons, 2010). Grotenhuis et al (2007) stated that it is expected that integrated intermodal travel information will have an influence on the modal choice of passengers. The use of public transport information and the willingness to travel with public transport will grow together. Only improvements in the provision of information will not automatically lead to more use of the public transport information (Farag and Lyons, 2010) Challenges in public transport information exchange There are several challenges in information exchange. The first one is that there are multiple companies which offer the transport and thus there are multiple companies that provide the information. The information exchange systems should have access to all timetables and trip costs of these companies. Therefore there should be a third party to own and maintain the system (Lyons and 19

42 Harman, 2002). The second challenge is that people should be aware of all available information types and that they should know where they could find the different types of information. 3.3 Information exchange in container transport chains In the same way as information exchange in public transport is described above, information in container transport is described in this section. The knowledge of Section 3.2 is used to make a comparison between public transport and container transport Information in container transport Vanpoucke et al (2009) defined information sharing as the sharing of information among partners to serve downstream customers effectively and efficiently. This definition might not be complete, since information sharing could also aim to serve upstream customers (Zhou and Benton, 2007). The sharing of information is only useful if it adds value for one or more actors in the transport chain, or adds value for the whole transport chain. The need for information sharing Transport and organising transport will be easier when there is a closer collaboration between the different companies in the transport chain. A better collaboration between the actors in the transport chain could be achieved by a better transport chain integration, which includes more or better exchange of information. According to Tjokroamidjojo et al (2006) collaboration should lead to a more smooth flow of information and materials. A lot of literature is written about supply chain integration (e.g. Prajogo and Olhager, 2012), but fewer literature is written about integration between companies in the transport chain. Almost all literature about integration in the supply chain is focussed on factories and consignees, which is partly outside the scope of the transport chain. Based on several definitions for supply chain integration and logistic chain integration (Prajogo and Olhager, 2012; Alfalla-luque et al, 2013), and the definitions of the transport chain (as in Section 2.1), transport chain integration could be described as: integration of the transportation by collaboration between the actors on strategic, tactical and operational levels to coordinate the flow from the beginning of the transport chain to the end. To coordinate this flow, information exchange between the actors is necessary. A reliable container transport chain contains as few uncertainties as possible. There are two methods to reduce uncertainties in transport planning. The first method is to get more information about the activities of the customers and suppliers to balance demand and supply. The second method is better communication between the partners in the transport chain, to have a sooner response from the transport chain members about changes (Olesen et al, 2013a). Both methods are based on better communication and information exchange. A seamless transport chain is only possible if there is a good integration of information between the actors. For example, if it is unknown when there is a need for capacity, it is impossible to make a good planning and have a high utilisation of the resources (Olesen et al.). With more information about arrivals and departures of transportation means, uncertainties in the planning could be reduced (Olesen et al, 2013a). Therefore there is a need for accurate or real-time information. Types of information that could be shared Information sharing in the supply chain is discussed extensively in the literature (e.g. Lee and Whang, 1998; Zhou and Benton, 2007; Mirzabeiki et al, 2009). Several different types of information can be shared along the supply chain, mainly between manufacturer and customers. This literature is used for this section, but only those types of information that will be exchanged within the transport chain are taken into account. There are nine value-adding supply chain information types defined by Mirzabeiki et al (2009). Only three of them are in the scope of this research, namely the location of 20

43 the products/containers, the conditions of the products and the shipment quantity. They discovered that the first two are the most supported of the nine by the interviewee panel which consists of people working in the area of logistics or supply chain management. Other potential information types that could be shared are for example the available timeslots at the terminal, container status, terminal capacity, custom documents, prediction of the handling time etc. There is less written in literature about sharing these types of information within the transport chain. Lessons from information sharing in public transport As described in Section 3.2 people use public transport information when they feel they might need it. The information need is strongly dependent on habits and familiarity. This might also be true for container transport, but to a lesser extent. Because containers cannot walk or change vehicles by themselves, there is a higher need for planning and thus for information. So container transport might be less sensitive for habits than public transport, because planners are probably more aware of other routes and modalities Influence of information on container transport When there is more information available in container transport, this will have influence on the transport chain. According to Flynn et al (2010) the goal of information sharing is to provide maximum value to the customer at low cost and high speed. To achieve this, the available capacity should be used better. When there is more information available about the arrivals of deep sea vessels, barges and trucks, a better and more optimal terminal planning could be made, with reduced waiting times. When there is more real-time information available, schedules could be better adapted to changes in the planning (Olesen et al, 2013b). This could lead to improved utilisation of port systems. More exchange of information could also lead to improved transport chain integration (Vanpoucke et al, 2009; Olesen et al, 2013b). A better integration of the transport chain, as a result of better information exchange, will have several advantages. The first one is reduced uncertainties and an increased reliability throughout the whole transport chain (Zhou and Benton, 2007; Panayides and Song, 2008). This is possible because customers will get more (real-time) information about order status, availability of products, tracking of orders and invoices (Mirzabeiki et al, 2009). It will lead to shorter waiting times (OIesen et al, 2013b) and costs savings (Heilig and Voß, 2014). Also the speed and quality of the operations will improve (Heilig and Voß, 2014). Information sharing could also be to improve the competitiveness of companies. The flexibility will improve, which will lead to a better competitive position of the port or deep sea terminal (Mirzabeiki et al, 2009). This is probably the final goal of information sharing because the previous mentioned goals both could lead to a better competitive position (Olesen et al, 2013b). As stated in Section 3.2, better provision of information could lead to more use of public transport. It is imaginable that information could have the same influence on the modal split in container transport. When there is more accurate information available about barge transport, e.g. departure times at the terminal, available capacity and travel times, it may lead to a modal shift towards more barge transport Challenges in container transport information exchange According to Olesen et al (2013b) the lack of information exchange has three causes: trust, availability and quality of data, and the complexity of the system and/or technology. Companies are only willing to share information when they trust both the system and the companies with who the information is shared. Often trust is based on the degree of familiarity of the other companies 21

44 intentions and strategic directions (Braziotis, 2011). The availability and quality of information is also important, because when there is no information available, it is not possible to share the information. When there is information, but of bad quality, it might be not useful to share or receive that information. The last cause is the complexity of the system. The system should be able to connect a lot of companies and provide functionalities to exchange different types of information. This means that there are lot of different requirements and interests, which makes it hard to build a good and reliable system. Section 3.2 described the challenges for information exchange in public transport. One of these challenges was that there are multiple companies involved in information exchange. This also holds for container transport. Information exchange systems should be owned and maintained by a third party who has access to the data of all other companies. Another challenge in information sharing is that the technical solutions for the exchange of data should be more used. Nowadays they are not widely applied. This has multiple reasons: a lot of companies mostly focus on the short term, which means that the long term strategic partnerships are lagging behind. The introduction of a Port Community System (PCS) has multiple challenges. A new platform should be created, which is a very complex task because a lot of actors are involved. The PCS acts like an intermediary which has the control over all information flows (Tijan et al, 2014). This should be a trustworthy neutral and reliable company. According to Crainic et al (2009), in the development of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), the software component is lagging behind the hardware component. This results in that a lot of information could be shared, while it is unknown which information is useful to share and if the information is properly exploited. 3.4 Methods to determine the information needs and the impact of information Research sub questions 4 to 6 are about the information needs of hinterland parties, the importance of information and the impact of information on the transport chain. Previous sections mentioned some information types that could be exchanged and the influence of information exchange on the transport chain. This section describes the research methods that are used to give more elaborated answers to the research sub questions in chapters four and five. These methods are a gate survey, interviews, questionnaires and a serious game Gate survey The gate survey is used to determine the current lack of information. When hinterland parties have a problem because of a lack of information, they will call the terminal gate for the missing information. When these phone calls will be registered over multiple days, it will provide a good overview of the problems caused by the lack of information. This can for example be done with short gate questionnaires that need to be filled out for every phone call. The advantage is that the most necessary information and information that cannot be found will be determined by this gate survey. Disadvantages are that the information obtained from the gate survey is limited, because the new and out of the box ideas are not mentioned. Also the important information types that are communicated very well via other channels, will not be mentioned in the phone calls, which will lead to an incomplete overview of information needs. The last disadvantage is that the gate survey is very labour intensive. Despite the disadvantages the gate survey is used for this research. This is because the most necessary information can be determined. The disadvantage that this leads to an incomplete overview is covered with the other research methods. Other disadvantages are smaller than the benefits of the gate survey. 22

45 3.4.2 Interviews with hinterland parties Determining the information needs and wants of hinterland parties is also possible by asking the hinterland parties in interviews. Interviews can be structured interviews or open interviews. Structured interviews are based on a pre-defined list of questions (Baarda et al, 1995). This is less suitable for this research because the questions will be different per actor group and there could also be differences between two companies from the same actor group. For example an importer who transports all containers by barge and an importer who transports all containers by truck will have other information needs and thus other interview questions. In an open interview, the interviewer will explore the topic and the viewpoint of the interviewee about the topic by asking questions (Baarda et al, 1995). Advantages are that there will be results very quickly and follow-up questions could be asked directly. Disadvantages are that some open interviews could be hard when the interviewee is not very talkative and that the results of the interviews could be biased because the interviewer could influence the interviewee. There are multiple types of open interviews. The two most applicable for this research are free attitude interviews and semi-structured interviews (Baarda et al, 1995). A free attitude interview is nonstructured and starts with one open question. The rest of the interview only consist of follow-up questions. An advantage is that the information is more relevant because they directly relate those topics which are important for the interviewee (Buskens, 2011). A disadvantage is that not all people are talkative enough or are not able to think out of the box, which is necessary for this type of interview. In a semi-structured interview all topics are pre-defined, but not all the questions. Followup questions are also important in semi-structured interviews. Free attitude and semi-structured interviews can be adapted to the interviewee and individual cases. The interviews will be used for this research to determine the information needs of hinterland parties, but also to determine the importance of the information types Questionnaires Interviews are very time consuming and hard to compare with each other. Especially for the question how important the information types are for hinterland parties, interviews do not give a complete answer. An alternative method overcoming these drawbacks are questionnaires. Questionnaires are an appropriate research method for questions about self-supported beliefs, so questionnaires would fit for the question about how important information is for hinterland parties. The advantages of questionnaires are that it is easier to get more responses, the results could be compared with each other and the people are not influenced by the researcher, because they are only answering questions (Neuman, 1994). A disadvantage of questionnaires is that the amount of information that will be obtained is limited. A too long questionnaire would decrease the response rate (Noordhoff Uitgevers). So a questionnaire will give extensive data about a small part of the topic. Another disadvantage is that respondents have their own way of filling out questionnaires. For example they never pick the extremes, or always pick the extremes (Noordhoff Uitgevers). When there are questions with a scale, never or always picking the extremes could be prevented by a second scale: give the respondent 100 points which should be divided over all questions. With this scale respondents are forced to think twice about the importance of the different information types at other ways. The two scales could be compared with each other. When the results are (nearly) the same, this will have a positive influence on the reliability of the data. The questionnaires are used in this research to determine how important the different information types are for the hinterland parties. 23

46 3.4.4 Serious game When the importance of the different information types is known, it is still unknown what the impact of information sharing on the transport chain would be. The impact of information could partly be determined in the interviews by asking the hinterland parties what they would do with the information and how it will change their daily activities. But that would be mainly focussed on the impact for the individual actors. Determining the impact for the transport chain can be done with a serious game. Determining the impact of all desired information types will be too time consuming. Therefore the impact of only one of the information types will be determined. This will be done with a serious game. In a serious game the real world can be mimicked. A game consists of actors with roles, a predefined set of rules, and resources (Kriz, 2003; Douma et al, 2012). The input for a game are the characteristics of the game setting and the output of the interviews and the questionnaire: the (most important) information needs of hinterland parties. The output of the game will be the behaviour or change in behaviour of hinterland parties when some types of information are provided. In general games could have three main functions: Learning, research and intervention (Mayer et al, 2004). In the learning function the game enables the participant to learn about the system in an experimental environment. When the game has a research function, the game enables researchers to learn about the system and interaction between participants. For the last function, the intervention function, the game provides an experimental environment where researchers and participants can learn for real decision-making and policymaking. For this research the main function of a game is the research goal. It would be interesting to know how participants react on the provided information and how it will influence their choices and behaviour. The main goal of serious games can be to gain insight in the decision making process of the actors (Kriz, 2003). This is possible because a serious game uses real people as decision makers. Therefore it is also possible to simulate competition between the different actors (Douma et al, 2012) Conclusion The methods as described above will be used to answer the research sub questions, as shown in Figure 3.2. Research sub question 4 is about the information needs of hinterland parties. These information types will be determined with a gate survey and interviews. Research sub question 5 is about the importance of the information types. The interviews and the questionnaires will be used to answer this question. The last research sub question (6) is about the impact of information, this will be determined with a serious game in Chapter 5. 24

47 Chapter 4 Which information types are wanted and/or needed by hinterland parties? Gate survey Interviews Chapter 4 What is the importance of those information types? Interviews Questionnaires Chapter 5 What would be the impact of information sharing on the transport chain? Serious game FIGURE 3.2 RESEARCH METHODS CHAPTER 4 AND Conclusion The term information is defined as edited or processed data provided about something or someone that enhance your knowledge. Information can be categorised in different ways. This report uses two of them. The first is categorisation by time, this scale contains fixed information, information about the history, information about the current status, and predictions and information about future events. The second categorisation is categorisation by level. The levels for this research are defined as containers, transportation means, and deep sea terminal. More or better exchange of information could lead to a more reliable transport chain, higher utilization of resources, improved transport chain integration, more efficiency in the transport chain, a modal shift towards barge transport, and improved competitive positions of companies. There is not much written about which types of information could be exchanged. Therefore the next chapter focusses on the types of information that are within the information needs of hinterland parties. A gate survey and interviews are used to determine the information needs of hinterland parties. The interviews and the questionnaires are used to determine the importance of the information types within the information needs of the hinterland parties. Chapter five determines the impact of information on the transport chain with a serious game. 25

48 26

49 4 Information needs and the importance of information Chapter 2 showed the actors in the import transport chain. These actors are given again in Figure 4.1. The hinterland parties in this figure that exchange information with the deep sea terminal are the barge operator, the truck operator, and the importer. The two other hinterland parties that exchange information with the deep sea terminal are the exporter and the freight forwarder. These five hinterland parties are taken into account in this chapter. Barge operator Inland terminal Truck operator Shipping line Deep sea terminal Importer Truck operator FIGURE 4.1 ACTORS IN THE IMPORT TRANSPORT CHAIN Chapter 2 explained the information that is currently exchanged between hinterland parties and deep sea terminals. As Figure 3.2 showed, this chapter analyses what the actual information needs and wants of hinterlands parties are and how important the information is for them. This is done with the gate survey, interviews and questionnaires. These methods are explained in Section 4.1. The results are presented based on the different level of information as determined in Section 3.1: containers, transportation means and deep sea terminals. The results on container level are presented in Section 4.2, the results on transportation mean level in 4.3, and on deep sea terminal level in 4.4. Section 4.5 gives a discussion on the results and Section 4.6 gives the conclusion. 27

50 4.1 Research methods The information needs and the importance of information are determined with a gate survey, interviews and questionnaires. This sections describes how these research methods are performed Gate survey The gate survey is used to determine the current gap in information exchange between hinterland parties and deep sea terminals. When hinterland parties have a question for the deep sea terminal, they will call the terminal gate. The gate survey is a short questionnaire to register all these phone calls. The questionnaire for the gate survey should be as short as possible to increase the ease of filling out the questionnaire for the gate employees. This will increase the response rate. The questionnaire consists of seven questions. The first four questions were container number, booking number, PINcode, and TARcode. These data are not important for the research, but are included because the gate employees sometimes have to write these data somewhere, so this will increase the ease of filling in the survey. The first four questions were not mandatory. The last three questions are the important ones for the research: modality, subject of the phone call, and if the person who called the gate could have found the answer online, e.g. via the port community system, webportal or website. In order to increase the ease of filling out the questionnaire, the last three questions were multiple choice. The questionnaire was held on five days, from 7.00h until 23.00h. To spread out these days over the different shifts, the days were spread out over 6 weeks. Initially it were 6 days (Sunday until Friday) spread out over 4 weeks, but not all days had led to valid results because the gate employees did not fill out the questionnaire on some days. Most of these days were replaced and redone. There are viable results for the following days: (Sunday) (Thursday) (Tuesday) (Friday) (Monday) Only the Wednesday is missing, but it is assumed that there are no different problems or questions on Wednesday compared to other (week)days. Also the fact that the gate survey is labour intensive made that the Wednesday was not registered again. A full description of the gate survey could be found in appendix B Interviews The interviews had two goals: determine the information needs of hinterland parties and discover what information types are important for hinterland parties and why. In total 21 interviews have been conducted. The first four interviews were pre-interviews in order to get a better overview of the problems and information needs and wants of the hinterland parties. They were also test interviews, which is necessary because open interviews could be biased by the interviewer. In these interviews, the hinterland parties were asked to give their opinion on the current way of exchanging information and the current platforms. The questions were focussed on where they thought there would be improvements possible in information exchange and how they think these improvements could be implemented best. The hinterland parties were also asked what additional types of information they would like to have. The subsequent questions were why they want to have that 28

51 information and what they would do with that information. The pre-interviews were structured interviews with a pre-set list of questions. This list could be found in Appendix C. In case there were reasons to ask follow-up questions, this was done. The results of the pre-interviews were only used as a preparation for the real interviews. After the pre-interviews there were 17 interviews held. Only the results of these 17 interviews are taken into account. Within each actor group there were 3 companies interviewed, except for the barge operators. There were 5 interviews with barge operators, to test how many interviews are necessary. The outcomes of the fourth and the fifth interview with barge operators were not very different from the first three, and there were hardly any new insights or viewpoints. From this it can be concluded that three interviews per actor is enough. As mentioned in Section 3.4 there are multiple types of interviews. All held interviews started as a free attitude interview. The first question was broad: which improvements in information exchange with the deep sea terminal do you want? Sometimes this led to out of the box ideas and things that hinterland parties really like to know. But in some interviews the interviewee got stuck because the question was too open or he or she could only mention a few things. In these cases the interview was a semi-structured interview. The pre-set list of topics was continuously changing, based on previous interviews. This list always started with their frustrations in daily life about the current situation and how this could be improved with more or better information exchange. Then the topics mentioned in earlier interviews were discussed. When the interviewee mentioned an information type that he or she liked to know, important follow-up questions during the interviews were why the different types of information are important (or not). For the currently unknown information it was asked how they would use the information and how they would benefit from receiving that information. A full description, including the interviewed companies, can be found in Appendix D Questionnaires The questionnaires were used to determine the importance of the different information types as mentioned in the gate survey and the interviews. The questionnaire that was used starts with some general questions about the companies: company name, company type, number of TEU per year and the job title of the person filling out the questionnaire. This is followed by a list of information types. The list of information types is based on the gate survey and the interviews. But based on internal discussions within APMT MVII some information types were added or removed from that list. Most mentioned reason to remove information types was because it is not possible for a deep sea terminal to share this kind of information. All information types were divided in three lists, one for each level (container, transportation mean and deep sea terminal). Within each list the information types were sorted by categorisation based on time. The importance of the information types is measured in two different ways. The first is on scale from 1 to 7, from not important to very important. Because the questionnaire is equal for all hinterland parties, there is also an option not applicable. The second way to measure the importance is a column where the hinterland party gets 100 points which should be divided over the information types. Important information types will get more point and less important information types will get fewer or no points. Both methods are used in the questionnaire because people have different styles of filling out a questionnaire. With these two ways of measuring importance the results could be compared with each other to make the overall outcome more reliable. The questionnaire can be found in Appendix E. The questionnaire was send by to 15 companies for each actor groups, so to 75 companies in total. The response rate is given in Table

52 TABLE 4.1 RESPONSES QUESTIONNAIRES Company type Questionnaires sent Responses (n) Response rate Truck operators % Barge operators % Freight forwarders % Importers % Exporters % All % The response rate for the freight forwarders and the exporters is very low, therefore these actor groups are not taken into account individually. The column were the 100 points should be divided over the information types was not filled in by every respondent. In total 4 truck operators, 4 barge operators and 4 importers did fill in this column. Therefore these data are only used in order to control the results of the scale from 1 to 7. The results of the questionnaire are presented in Appendix E. The next sections describes the results from the mentioned research methods. Section 4.2 describes the information needs and importance of information on container level. Section 4.3 describes this for the transportation mean level and Section 4.4 for the deep sea terminal level. 4.2 Information about containers The information needs of hinterland parties are described first in this section. After this the importance of these information types is discussed The information types wanted and needed by hinterland parties The information needs and wants of the hinterland parties were determined with the gate survey and the interviews. The results are given in Table

53 Fixed information History Current status Predictions and future events TABLE 4.2 INFORMATION NEEDS ABOUT CONTAINERS Information types Desired temperature reefer Container number ISO Code Confirmation export container loaded on (deep) sea vessel Confirmation import container discharged from (deep) sea vessel Times gate in/gate out at deep sea terminal History temperature reefer Time container discharged Times gate in/gate out at deep sea terminal overseas Container status for custom holds Type of custom holds Status container Pre-check documents OK Presence container at deep sea terminal Temperature settings reefer Actual temperature reefer Difference between actual and desired temperature reefer Damages/condition container Reefer connected or not Pre-announcement Expected time for custom scans Expected time of discharge from deep sea vessel The information types are marked by one or two symbols, to show from which method(s) the information types are determined. The following symbols are used: Gate survey Interviews Most information types are about the history or the current status of the container. The information types that were mentioned in both the gate survey and the interviews are about the availability of the container and when a container could be picked up or delivered The importance of the information types The information types mentioned above are tested on importance in the questionnaires. Not all information types were taken into account because some information types are almost similar or cannot be shared by the terminal. The last reason holds for example for the history of the temperature of a reefer, this could only be shared by the shipping line and not by the deep sea terminal. The results of the questionnaire are presented in Table 4.3. This table contains multiple columns. The first column contains the tested information types. The next columns give the average scores (μ) on importance from 1 to 7. After the average scores, the number of responses (n) for that information type is given. When a respondent said that the information type was not applicable for him/her, this was not taken into account for the average score, so the n is lower. The μ and n are given for every actor groups with enough responses (N 4). 31

54 TABLE 4.3 IMPORTANCE OF THE INFORMATION TYPES ABOUT CONTAINERS DETERMINED FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRES Fixed information Information about containers All actors Truck operators Barge operators Importers N = 20 N = 9 N = 5 N = 4 μ n μ n μ n μ n Container type 6,2 19 6,6 8 6,0 5 6,0 4 History Total time of the container in the stack at the deep sea terminal 3,5 18 2,4 7 3,0 5 5,8 4 Confirmation export container loaded on (deep) sea vessel 3,4 16 2,9 7 3,8 5 3,0 2 Confirmation import container discharged from (deep) sea vessel 6,7 17 7,0 8 6,2 5 6,7 3 Times gate in/gate out at deep sea terminal 4,6 19 4,4 8 4,0 5 5,8 4 Times gate in/gate out containers terminal overseas 3,4 16 2,7 6 3,8 5 4,3 3 Modality gate in/out at deep sea terminal 4,7 18 4,8 8 4,2 5 5,7 3 Current status Container status for custom holds 6,6 19 7,0 8 6,2 5 6,5 4 Type of custom holds 6,4 19 6,6 8 6,2 5 6,5 4 Documents OK 6,7 19 7,0 8 6,8 5 6,5 4 Pre-check container available 6,8 19 7,0 8 6,6 5 7,0 4 Presence container at deep sea terminal 6,6 19 7,0 8 6,6 5 6,3 4 Type stack import containers 3,8 17 4,1 7 2,6 5 5,0 4 Position container at (deep) sea vessel 4,2 18 3,3 7 4,0 5 6,5 4 Temperature settings reefer 4,2 18 3,3 8 4,5 4 5,3 4 Actual temperature reefer 4,1 18 3,0 8 4,5 4 5,0 4 Difference between actual and desired temperature reefer 4,6 18 3,3 8 6,0 4 4,5 4 Container registered as early arrival yes/no 5,4 18 5,9 7 4,0 5 6,0 4 Container registered as late arrival yes/no 5,7 18 5,9 7 5,2 5 6,0 4 Predictions and future events Expected time for custom scans 5,6 19 5,9 8 5,4 5 6,3 4 Expected time of discharge from (deep) sea vessel 6,1 19 6,8 8 5,2 5 6,5 4 The importance of the information types is measured on a scale from 1 to 7, from not important to very important. N = number of responses per actor group μ = average score n = number of responses per information type. This could be lower than overall N, because some information types are not applicable for some hinterland parties. The container type appears to be very important, although this is also communicated by the shipping line. In the interviews some people told that they also would like to know this information from the deep sea terminal, because the information from the shipping line is not always right. So when the container terminal communicates the container type they can have an extra check for their information. Within the information types about the history, the confirmation that a container is discharged is the most important one. Again this information is also communicated by the shipping line, but is not always correct. When a container is discharged from the (deep) sea vessel, it could be picked up for hinterland transport. So it is important that this information is correct and therefore the hinterland parties also would like to know this information from the deep sea terminal. The information about the current status of a container contains several important information types. The most important information types are information about custom holds and documents as well as the availability of the container. These information types were also mentioned both in the interviews and the gate survey. The presence of the container at the terminal was occasionally 32

55 mentioned in the interviews, but the gate survey showed that this is important to know for hinterland parties. The container status for custom matters could be missing documents for export containers or custom holds for import containers. It is remarkable that the importers would like to know the position of the container at the (deep) sea vessel, while the other actors are not really interested in this information. Probably because if this information is known, it is still not possible to make an accurate estimation of when the container will be discharged. In the interviews the importers did not mention this type of information, so it can be doubted if importers really would like to know this type of information. The information types about predictions and future events show that hinterland parties would like to know what happens when with the container. From the interviews it can be concluded that if hinterland parties have more information about the predictions and future events of containers, they could make a better estimation about when they could pick up their container. If those estimations are more accurate, their planning will also be more accurate. This could result in a more reliable service for their customers Most important information types The five most important information types per actor group are summarized in Table 4.4. In some cases there are more information types in the table, this is when there were several information types with the same score. TABLE 4.4 MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION TYPES ABOUT CONTAINERS PER ACTOR GROUP All actors Truck operators Barge operators Importers 1. Pre-check container available (6,8) 2. Confirmation import container discharged from (deep) sea vessel (6,7) 3. Documents OK (6,7) 4. Container status for custom holds (6,6) 5. Presence container at deep sea terminal (6,6) 1. Confirmation import container discharged from (deep) sea vessel (7,0) 2. Container status for custom holds (7,0) 3. Documents OK (7,0) 4. Pre-check container available (7,0) 5. Presence container at deep sea terminal (7,0) 1. Documents OK (6,8) 2. Pre-check container available (6,6) 3. Presence container at deep sea terminal (6,6) 4. Confirmation import container discharged from (deep) sea vessel (6,2) 5. Container status for custom holds (6,2) 6. Type of custom holds (6,2) 1. Pre-check container available (7,0) 2. Confirmation import container discharged from (deep) sea vessel (6,7) 3. Container status for custom holds (6,5) 4. Type of custom holds (6,5) 5. Documents OK (6,5) 6. Position container at (deep) sea vessel (6,5) 7. Expected time of discharge from (deep) sea vessel (6,5) Almost all of these information types are about the current status of the container, except the confirmation that a container is discharged (history). This confirmation is important for all actor groups. A remarkable result for the importers is again the position of the container on a (deep) sea vessel. Overall can be concluded that hinterland parties would like to know as detailed as possible when a container could be picked up or delivered. The results of the gate survey and interviews in Section 4.2 also showed that hinterland parties mainly want to have information about the current situation and history to know if a container is available and when the container could be picked up or delivered. 33

56 4.3 Information about transportation means This section describes the information needs of hinterland parties about transportation means. First the different information types are described and second the importance of these information types is described The information types wanted and needed by hinterland parties The information needs and wants of hinterland parties about transportation means are determined by interviews and the gate survey. The results can be found in Table 4.5. Fixed information History Current status Predictions and future events TABLE 4.5 INFORMATION NEEDS ABOUT TRANSPORTATION MEANS Information types Shipping line codes Actual time of arrival Actual time of departure Changes in cargo cut off time Delays yard opening time Delays (deep) sea vessels TAR code Estimated time of arrival (deep) sea vessel (ETA) Estimated time of departure (deep) sea vessel (ETD) Cargo cut off time (CCO) Yard opening time (YOT) Origins/destinations barges at deep sea terminal Available capacity barges at deep sea terminal Prices for barge transport from/to APMT MVII Call size barge Call barges generated Load and discharge list The information types are marked by one or two symbols, to show from which method(s) the information types are determined. The following symbols are used: Gate survey Interviews Most information types about transportation means are predictions or information about future events. From all mentioned information types three main topics could be distinguished: the arrival and departure times of (deep) sea vessels, information for hinterland transport operators about their own transportation means and information about barge transport with other barges The importance of the information types The information types that are wanted and needed by hinterland parties as determined in the previous section are tested on importance in the questionnaires. Again not all information types were tested in the questionnaire, e.g. the call size of barges because this cannot be communicated by the terminal to other hinterland parties. There were also some information types added, e.g. the ATA and ATD and history of vessels. 34

57 History TABLE 4.6 IMPORTANCE OF THE INFORMATION TYPES ABOUT TRANSPORTATION MEANS - DETERMINED FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRES Information about transportation means All actors Truck operators Barge operators Importers n = 20 n = 9 n = 5 n = 4 μ n μ n μ n μ n Actual time of arrival (deep) sea vessel (ATA) 6,4 20 6,0 9 6,6 5 7,0 4 Actual time of arrival (deep) sea vessel (ATD) 5,6 19 5,2 9 6,6 5 4,3 3 History (deep) sea vessel (e.g. changes in ETA, CCO, YOT) 5,1 19 4,6 9 6,4 5 4,0 3 Actual time of arrival barges 3,4 17 2,6 8 6,0 5 2,0 2 Actual times of departure barges 3,6 17 2,4 8 6,6 5 3,0 2 History barge (e.g. changes in ETA, ETD, cancellations) 3,6 17 2,2 8 6,4 5 3,5 2 Current status Delays (deep) sea vessels 6,8 20 6,9 9 6,4 5 7,0 4 Delays yard opening time 5,7 19 6,9 9 4,2 5 5,0 3 Changes in cargo cut off time 6,1 19 6,4 9 5,6 5 5,7 3 Progress of discharging/loading (deep) sea vessel 5,7 20 6,4 9 4,6 5 6,0 4 Progress discharging/loading barge 3,9 17 2,9 7 5,8 5 4,3 3 Changes in hinterland modality 3,5 18 4,0 8 3,4 5 3,3 3 Predictions and future events Estimated time of arrival (deep) sea vessel (ETA) 6,4 20 6,7 9 6,4 5 6,5 4 Estimated time of departure (deep) sea vessel (ETD) 5,5 19 6,3 9 5,4 5 3,0 3 Cargo cut off time (CCO) 5,4 19 5,8 9 6,0 5 3,3 3 Yard opening time (YOT) 5,2 19 6,3 9 4,2 5 3,3 3 Estimated time of arrival barges 4,0 16 3,6 7 6,0 5 2,0 2 Estimated time of departure barges 4,1 16 3,4 7 6,0 5 3,0 2 Origins/destinations barges at deep sea terminal 2,8 16 2,7 7 3,6 5 1,5 2 Time of arrival/departure barges at inland terminal 2,9 16 2,0 7 3,8 5 3,0 2 Available capacity barges at deep sea terminal 2,9 16 2,0 7 3,8 5 2,5 2 Prices for barge transport from/to APMT MVII 3,3 15 2,6 6 3,8 5 2,0 2 The importance of the information types is measured on a scale from 1 to 7, from not important to very important. N = number of responses per actor group μ = average score n = number of responses per information type. This could be lower than overall N, because some information types are not applicable for some hinterland parties. The most important information types about the history are the actual times of arrival and departure of (deep) sea vessels (ATA and ATD). When hinterland parties have this information they can make a better estimation of when their containers will be discharged, which enables them to make a better and more reliable planning. In contrast to the information about containers, the importance of the information about transportation means varies among the actor groups. It is obvious that the information about the arrival and departure times of barges is important for barge operators, but not for the truck operators and the importers. Important information types of the current status of transportation means are mainly about the delays of (deep) sea vessels and the possible impact of these delays: changes in the cargo cut off time (CCO) and delays in the yard opening time (YOT). The delays of (deep) sea vessels mainly have an impact on import containers, because they will arrive later. It only has an impact on export containers when the yard opening time and cargo cut off time also change. Changes in the YOT and CCO are mainly important for the truck operators and of less importance to the barge operators and the importers. This might be caused by the fact that the capacity of a truck is lower than the capacity 35

58 of a barge, therefore it would be worse for truck operators when one container could not be delivered, because a later moment of transportation would have more influence on the planning. To importers this information is of less importance because the CCO and YOT, only have influence on export containers. The most important information type about predictions and future events is the estimated time of arrival of the (deep) sea vessels (ETA). This is because the ETA is leading in the planning of hinterland parties. The ETA is also communicated by shipping lines, but from the interviews it can be obtained that hinterland parties also want to receive this information from the deep sea terminal to have an extra check. It is remarkable that the information about destinations and available capacity of barges is not important for all actors. The arrival/departure times of barges is only important for barge operators, while it could have been expected that importers also like to know this information so they know when a container will arrive at the inland terminal. From the interviews it was obtained that some barge operators were thinking about a platform where (part of) this information could be shared. Also APMT MVII is developing a platform for intermodal transport where this information could be shared. But the questionnaires showed that most hinterland parties do not think that this information is important to know Conclusion The five most important information types per actor are summarized in Table 4.7. TABLE 4.7 MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION TYPES ABOUT TRANSPORTATION MEANS PER ACTOR GROUP All actors Truck operators Barge operators Importers 1. Delays (deep) sea vessels (6,8) 2. Estimated time of arrival (deep) sea vessel (ETA) (6,5) 3. Actual time of arrival (deep) sea vessel (ATA) (6,4) 4. Progress of discharging/loading (deep) sea vessel (6,0) 5. Changes in cargo cut off time (5,7) 1. Delays (deep) sea vessels (6,9) 2. Delays yard opening time (6,9) 3. Estimated time of arrival (deep) sea vessel (ETA) (6,7) 4. Changes in cargo cut off time (6,4) 5. Progress of discharging/loading (deep) sea vessel (6,4) 1. Actual time of arrival (deep) sea vessel (ATA) (6,6) 2. Actual time of arrival (deep) sea vessel (ATD) (6,6) 3. Actual times of departure barges (6,6) 4. History (deep) sea vessel (e.g. changes in ETA, CCO, YOT) (6,4) 5. History barge (e.g. changes in ETA, ETD, cancellations) (6,4) 6. Delays (deep) sea vessels (6,4) 7. Estimated time of arrival (deep) sea vessel (ETA) (6,4) 1. Actual time of arrival (deep) sea vessel (ATA) (7,0) 2. Delays (deep) sea vessels (7,0) 3. Estimated time of arrival (deep) sea vessel (ETA) (6,5) 4. Progress of discharging/loading (deep) sea vessel (6,0) 5. Changes in cargo cut off time (5,7) The most important information types for truck operators, importers and the average overall responses are almost the same. Most information types are about the arrival times of (deep) sea vessels. This is information they already receive from the deep sea terminal. This information type is probably rated with a high score because this information is essential for hinterland transport. The progress of discharging and loading the (deep) sea vessel is also important. From the interviews can be concluded that the hinterland parties want to use this information to make an estimation on whether their container has already discharged or how long it will take before their container will be discharged. Last mentioned information type are changes in cargo cut off time (CCO). Barge operators rated the importance of the information types about transportation means differently. Except the arrival and departure times of (deep) sea vessels the arrival and departure times of barges and the history of the barges (e.g. ETA, ETD, cancellations) have been stated as important. 36

59 4.4 Information about deep sea terminals The last level in the categorisation of information is information about deep sea terminals. This information is described in this section The information types wanted and needed by hinterland parties From the interviews and gate survey the information needs of hinterland parties are determined. These information types can be found in Table 4.8. Fixed information History Current status Predictions and future events TABLE 4.8 INFORMATION NEEDS ABOUT DEEP SEA TERMINALS Information types Newsletter Closures at deep sea terminal Explanation of different types of custom holds Causes high truck turnaround times Truck turnaround time for individual trucks Malfunctions at deep sea terminal Predictions truck turnaround time deep sea terminal Barometer for crowdedness at the truck gate deep sea terminal Free time slots barge quay Barometer for crowdedness at the barge quay deep sea terminal Planning barge quay Future shipping services at APMT MVII Planned IT outage at deep sea terminal The information types are marked by one or two symbols, to show from which method(s) the information types are determined. The following symbols are used: Gate survey Interviews Multiple information types are about the crowdedness on the terminal. From the interviews it is known that truck operators would like to know how long it will take to pick up and/or deliver their container(s). Barge operators want to know the crowdedness on the terminal because of other reasons. Their schedule in the port often contains a lot of waiting times between the different calls. When they know the barge schedules and available capacity of the deep sea terminals, they can check if they can move their appointment to another moment so it fits better in their schedule. Also information about closures of the deep sea terminal is often mentioned in the gate survey and the interviews. 37

60 4.4.2 The importance of the information types Most of the mentioned information types were tested on importance in the questionnaires. The results are given in Table 4.9. TABLE 4.9 IMPORTANCE OF THE INFORMATION TYPES ABOUT THE DEEP SEA TERMINAL - DETERMINED FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRES All actors Truck operators Barge operators Importers Information about the deep sea terminal n = 20 n = 9 n = 5 n = 4 μ n μ n μ n μ n Fixed information Closures at deep sea terminal 6,8 20 6,9 9 6,8 5 6,5 4 Newsletter 5,2 19 4,7 9 6,0 5 5,3 3 Explanation of different types of custom holds 6,2 20 6,7 9 5,4 5 6,3 4 History Report for truck turnaround times last week 4,6 18 4,2 9 4,0 4 5,7 3 Causes high truck turnaround times 5,1 18 5,3 9 4,0 4 5,3 3 Truck turnaround time for individual trucks 4,4 18 4,6 9 3,8 4 4,0 3 Current status Malfunctions at deep sea terminal 6,5 20 6,7 9 6,6 5 6,0 4 IT outage at deep sea terminal 6,3 20 6,6 9 6,4 5 5,8 4 Predictions and future events Barometer for crowdedness at the truck gate deep sea terminal 5,9 19 6,6 9 4,5 4 6,0 4 Barometer for crowdedness at the barge quay deep sea terminal 4,1 17 2,7 7 6,2 5 4,3 3 Free time slots barge quay 4,3 15 2,4 5 6,6 5 4,0 3 Planning barge quay 4,3 16 2,7 6 6,4 5 4,3 3 Predictions truck turnaround time deep sea terminal 5,1 18 4,9 9 4,8 4 6,0 3 Weekly pattern number of trucks at deep sea terminal 4,7 18 4,2 9 4,8 4 5,0 3 Overview barge waiting times 4,1 16 2,3 6 6,2 5 4,3 3 Weekly pattern barge volumes at deep sea terminal 3,4 14 2,4 5 4,4 5 3,5 2 Future shipping services at APMT MVII 4,7 16 3,9 8 5,8 5 5,0 1 The importance of the information types is measured on a scale from 1 to 7, from not important to very important. N = number of responses per actor group μ = average score n = number of responses per information type. This could be lower than overall N, because some information types are not applicable for some hinterland parties. The most important fixed information at deep sea terminal level are the closures of the terminal and the explanation of the different types of custom holds and errors. When someone makes a preannouncement there can be a lot of different errors and custom holds with different error codes. In the interviews some hinterland parties told that they do not always know the meanings of these error codes. If this would be more clear, it will save a lot frustrations, time and phone calls. The information types about the category history were about the past truck turnaround times, but they did not get a high score. In the interviews hinterland parties told that they would like to know the crowdedness on the terminal and the truck turnaround times, to make a better truck planning. The information about the truck turnaround times in the category history will not change the truck schedule, it will only have influences on the delays. When the information about truck turnaround times is provided after the truck is delayed, it might not be very useful for hinterland parties. Probably therefore these information types did not get a very high score. 38

61 The information types about the current status of the terminal in the questionnaire are malfunctions and IT outages at the deep sea terminal. Both have a high score, which can be explained by the fact that when there are malfunctions or an IT outage this will directly influence the operations of most hinterland parties. These scores might be biased because this research is done for APMT MVII. This is a new terminal and therefore the terminal still has IT outages frequently. The most important information type in the category predictions and future events is the barometer for crowdedness at the truck gate of the deep sea terminal. Truck operators, but also other types of hinterland parties, want to know how busy it is at the truck gate of the terminal. In the interviews the hinterland parties told that if they would have this information they could make a better estimation of the truck turnaround time. The information type predictions truck turnaround time deep sea terminal was also included in the questionnaire, but has a lower score. This might be caused by the fact that some terminals (e.g. Antwerp Gateway and Rotterdam World Gateway) already provide information about the crowdedness on the terminal and hinterland parties would like to receive this information from all terminals. When hinterland parties were asked in the interviews whether they would want to receive the predicted truck turnaround times, almost all hinterland parties said that they would like to have this information. But some hinterland parties doubted the reliability of this information when it is provided by the terminal. This might explain why the barometer had a higher score in the questionnaires Conclusion The five most important information types per actor groups are summarized in Table TABLE 4.10 MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION TYPES ABOUT DEEP SEA TERMINALS PER ACTOR GROUP All actors Truck operators Barge operators Importers 1. Closures at deep sea terminal (6,8) 2. Malfunctions at deep sea terminal (6,5) 3. IT outage at deep sea terminal (6,3) 4. Explanation of different types of custom holds (6,2) 5. Barometer for crowdedness at the truck gate deep sea terminal (5,9) 1. Closures at deep sea terminal (6,9) 2. Explanation of different types of custom holds (6,7) 3. Malfunctions at deep sea terminal (6,7) 4. IT outage at deep sea terminal (6,6) 5. Barometer for crowdedness at the truck gate deep sea terminal (6,6) 1. Closures at deep sea terminal (6,8) 2. Malfunctions at deep sea terminal (6,6) 3. Free time slots barge quay (6,6) 4. IT outage at deep sea terminal (6,4) 5. Planning barge quay (6,4) 1. Closures at deep sea terminal (6,5) 2. Explanation of different types of custom holds (6,3) 3. Malfunctions at deep sea terminal (6,0) 4. Barometer for crowdedness at the truck gate deep sea terminal (6,0) 5. Predictions truck turnaround time deep sea terminal (6,0) Important information for all actors are about malfunctions and closures of the deep sea terminal. This can be explained by the fact that when the deep sea terminal is closed it will influence the operations of almost all hinterland parties. The explanation of the different types of custom holds is also important for hinterland parties, because this will help them a lot during the organisation of hinterland transport. The last group of important information types is information about the crowdedness on the terminal. With this information hinterland parties can make a more reliable planning, because the information used is more accurate. 4.5 Most important information types Section 4.2 to 4.4 ended with a concluding table with the five most important information types for that level. These tables are added together for one overview, this is Table

62 TABLE 4.11 MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION TYPES 40

63 There are a lot of similarities in the information needs of the different actor groups, e.g. the status of a container, ETA (deep) sea vessel, and status of the terminal. The biggest differences in information needs are between the truck operators and the barge operators. But although they want different information types, they want the information for the same purposes. Where truck operators want information about the crowdedness at the truck gate, barge operators want to know information about the planning of the barge quay and free time slots. They want this information so they can make an estimation of waiting times and optimise their planning. A lot of the information types at both the container and transportation means level have as final purpose to make a better estimation of when a container will be available to pick up or when a container can be delivered at the deep sea terminal. These information types are e.g. confirmation import container discharged from (deep) sea vessel, presence container at deep sea terminal, ETA and ETD (deep) sea vessel and the progress of discharging/loading (deep) sea vessel. These information types are important for all actor groups. In the questionnaire the respondents had to rate information types on importance in two different ways. The results as described above are only based on the importance on the scale from 1 to 7. The scale where 100 points should be divided was filled in by 70% of the respondents (4 truck operators, 4 barge operators, 4 importers, 1 exporter and 1 freight forwarder). Therefore this scale is only used in order to control the previous results. For the scale where the 100 points should be divided over the information types, the same table as Table 4.11 has been made. This table can be found in Appendix E. For all actor groups the five information types with the highest average scores are used. 75,8% of the information types in the table are also mentioned in Table This high percentages improves the reliability of the results. 4.6 Conclusion In the interviews was discussed why hinterland parties want the information types and how it would improve their operations and daily activities. When this is combined with the most important information types from Table 4.11, there can be made four groups of information types that are important for the hinterland parties: Container status The container status contains information types about the releasement of the container and other statuses. Often mentioned are the custom holds. Hinterland parties want to know if there are custom holds on the container, and if so which types of custom holds. Also information about the temperature of reefers and whether a container is registered as a late arrival or not, are within this information group. Moment of availability container Hinterland parties would like to know when they can pick up their container. The pre-check whether a container is available is one of the information types is this group. But also the information about the estimated and actual times of arrival and departure of (deep) sea vessels, the progress of discharging/loading and delays were mentioned in the tables. From the interviews it can be concluded that hinterland parties would like to know these information types to make an estimation when the container will be discharged or be available for pick up. Crowdedness on the deep sea terminal The third group of important information types is about the crowdedness on the terminal. The crowdedness can be subdivided in two types: crowdedness at the truck gate and crowdedness at the 41

64 barge quay. For the truck gate the hinterland parties would like to have a barometer which indicate the crowdedness on the terminal. From the interviews it appears that most hinterland parties are familiar with a barometer because some other terminals have a barometer on their website. They told in the interviews that if they would have a barometer for the crowdedness that they could make an estimation of the truck turnaround times. The information type predictions truck turnaround times at deep sea terminal is included in the questionnaire, but did not have a high score. This could be because they are not familiar with this type of information or because hinterland parties do not trust the expected truck turnaround times as calculated by the deep sea terminal. Similar to the truck barometer, hinterland parties like to have a barometer for the crowdedness at the barge quay. But they also want to have more detailed information about the planning of the barge quay and the waiting times for the barges. This might be because barges often have large waiting times in the port. When they have the barge planning or the free time slots of deep sea terminals they can check if they can optimise their own planning. Status terminal The last category is about the status of the terminal. This includes closures, malfunctions and IT outages. When the terminal is closed, this directly influences the operations of hinterland parties and therefore these information types are important to know. 42

65 43

66 44

67 5 The impact of providing the predicted truck turnaround times In previous chapter the information needs and the importance of information for hinterland parties were determined. These results were based on what the hinterland parties have indicated in the gate survey, interviews and questionnaires. But the impact of these information types on the transport chain is still unknown. Determining the impact of all information types will take too much time. Therefore only the impact of providing the truck turnaround times is determined in this chapter. This is done with a serious game. The truck turnaround time is defined as the residence time of a truck at the deep sea terminal, from gate in until gate out. The first section describes the development of the game. The second section discusses the results and the last section gives the conclusions. 5.1 Development of the game This section describes how the serious game is developed. It starts with an explanation of why the information type predicted truck turnaround times is chosen for the game and the goal of the game. Then the requirements for the game are described. In the fourth subsection the simplifications of the game are given and in the last subsection the design of the game is discussed Predicted truck turnaround times Information about the crowdedness at the deep sea terminal can be provided in several ways. An often mentioned way is to provide how much percent of the timeslot, is reserved. This information is already provided by some other terminals (e.g. Antwerp Gateway and Rotterdam World Gateway) and therefore hinterland parties are familiar with this type of information. APMT MVII only provides information about if a timeslot is full or not. Another way to express the crowdedness at the terminal is to provide information about the expected truck turnaround time. Chapter 4 showed that hinterland parties really would like to know the crowdedness on the terminal, so they can make an estimation of the truck turnaround times. But the information type about the predicted truck turnaround times did not get a high score, which is remarkable. This might be because hinterland 45

68 parties are not familiar with receiving this type of information. Because the terminal has a better view on the crowdedness and the circumstances they can make a better estimation of the truck turnaround times. Therefore this information type is chosen as the topic of the case study Goal of the game There are no terminals known that provide information about the predicted truck turnaround times. It may be useful, for both hinterland parties and the deep sea terminal, that the terminal shares this information, but it is unknown how hinterland parties will react if they receive information about the crowdedness at the terminal. The goal of the game is to gain insight in changes in the (planning) behaviour of the participants / truck operators and the influence of the information on the transport chain Requirements for the game In order to measure the changes in planning behaviour, there are 3 main requirements for the game. The game is designed to determine the impact of the provided information, so the first requirement is that there should be a possibility to measure the impact. Information could have impact on the efficiency and the reliability of the transport chain (Zuidwijk and Veenstra, 2015). The efficiency can be measured over the whole transport chain. In this case waiting times, delays and delivered containers can be expressed in points. With these points the (difference in) efficiency can be measured. The second requirement for the is that also the impact of the information on individual choice moments should be measurable. Therefore there are three fixed choice moments defined in the game that everyone should make. These moments are: 1. Current truck turnaround times. Two containers with the same time of availability and same delivery time. But one has no delay at the terminal and the other one has delay at the terminal. There is only one truck at the moment of availability of the containers. 2. Future truck turnaround times. Two containers with the same time of availability and same delivery time, but different terminals. At one terminal the truck turnaround times are low. At the other terminal the truck turnaround time is only low at the moment of availability, so the container from this terminal could be picked up just before the high truck turnaround times start. There is only one truck available. 3. Urgent container. A normal container and an urgent container with the same time of availability. The player has to choose between the normal container at the terminal with low delays and the urgent container at the terminal with high delays. The last requirement is that it should be possible to play the game with and without information. This makes it possible to see if there are any difference in the efficiency and choice moments Simplifications in the game The game should mimic the real situation as good as possible, but cannot be too complex. When the game is too complex there are too many factors that could influence or disrupt the results. It could also lead to mistakes during playing the game. Therefore there are some simplifications: Only import containers are taken into account. This is because for almost every loaded container, there is an empty return trip. When both import and export containers are taken into account this could be seen more or less as two separate games in one game. Because there is more import than export in the Port of Rotterdam, there will only be import containers in the game. 46

69 The empty retour containers could be delivered at the port. But the exact return location is not taken into account, so return trips could be to every deep sea terminal. There are only two deep sea terminals and two inland locations. Only delays at the deep sea terminals are taken into account. This means that delays during the hinterland transport or the handling at the inland destination are not taken into account. The time step is half an hour. This means that transport durations, handlings, and delays are half an hour or a multiple of half an hour. The truck company is the starting and end point of the trucks. It is assumed that the distance between the truck company and the deep sea terminal is negligible, therefore truck trips start and end at the deep sea terminal. Only 40ft containers and trucks with a capacity of 40ft are taken into account. When also 20ft containers are taken into account, the game will contain an extra component which is focussed on combining 20ft containers. This is not the goal of the game and can lead to disruptions in the results Design of the game In the game there are two deep sea terminals (I and II) and two inland locations (A and B). The map of these locations can be found in Appendix F. The travel time between the deep sea terminals and inland destination A is one hour and the travel time between the deep sea terminals and inland destination B is one and a half hour. The handling time at inland destinations A and B is half an hour. The handling time at the deep sea terminal (truck turnaround time) varies and is written in the timetable on the game board. The deep sea terminals and the inland destinations have their own column on this timetable. The time period for the game is from 6.00h to 22.00h. There are 20 containers (container numbers 11 to 30) that should be transported from the deep sea terminals to the inland destinations. The containers are represented by small cards. On these cards the time of availability, the latest delivery time, the container number, origin, and destination are written. At the start of the game all containers are at the deep sea terminals. To deliver the containers there are five trucks available, but not all of these trucks have to be in use continuously. All trips should be registered in a truck logbook. This logbook makes it possible to check whether the game has been played correctly and to see which choices are made at the choice moments. The board, the container cards, and the truck logbook can be found in Appendix F. For the player the goal of the game is to earn as much points as possible by delivering all containers. Every container that is delivered on time results in one point. Every container that is delivered too late will cost one point for each half hour overtime. When the urgent container is too late it will result in three minus points for each half hour overtime. At the end of the game all points are summed up for the final score. If the game is played without information, the truck turnaround times are hidden under small flaps. When the player decides to transport a container, he or she can look under the small flap. After looking the choice cannot be changed. 5.2 Results of the game The responses for the game are discussed first in this section. The results of the game could be divided into two parts. The first part is the overall efficiency for the transport chain. The second part are the individual choices and the impact on the planning behaviour. The results of this part is described later in this section. 47

70 5.2.1 Responses The game was played with 34 students. 14 of the responses were not taken into account because 13 of them contained mistakes with wrong truck turnaround times or trucks that were scheduled for a new trip before the truck was back at the terminal and 1 response had a total score of -25. The rest of the scores was between -3 and 7, so the -25 is considered as an outlier. There were 20 responses that were played correctly, 10 of them played without information about the truck turnaround times and 10 played with the information. The bachelor and master students are almost equally divided over the two scenarios; three bachelor students played with information and four bachelor students played without information. Also the different studies are spread out over the two scenarios. The different studies could be found in Appendix G Efficiency of the transport chain The efficiency of the transport chain is measured with points. Every container delivered on time results in one point, every container that is delivered too late results in a minus point per half hour. When the urgent container is too late, it will result in three minus points per half hour. The results of the game for the transport chain are given in Table 5.1. More elaborated results can be found in Appendix G. TABLE 5.1 RESULTS GAME FOR THE TRANSPORT CHAIN With Information Without information Average score µ 4,3 2,4 Standard deviation σ 1,68 2,50 Range scores 2 to 7-3 to 7 Average number of containers delivered on time Average minus points The table shows that the average score for the games played with information (4,3) is higher than the average score for the games played without information (2,4). If there is information provided on average 15 containers are delivered on time, without information 14 containers are delivered on time. This indicates that when there is information provided about the truck turnaround times, the transport chain will be a more efficient because the average score will increase with almost 2 points. The 2 points can be explained by that on average there is one container transported more in the scenario with information. The total number of minus points is one more minus point in the scenario with information. When in the scenario without information 1 extra container will be delivered on time this will save minus point(s) and will results in one more point because there is one extra container delivered on time. In the scenario with information the total number of containers delivered on time is increased with 7% compared to the scenario without information. This is a significant improvement of the efficiency. The standard deviation of the average scores is rather high and the difference between the average scores (1,9) is low compared to the range of the scores (from -3 to 7). Therefore the results indicate improved efficiency, but it is not guaranteed that the efficiency will be always higher Choice moments in the game Section described 3 choices that almost all players have to make in the game. The results of these choice moments are described below. 48

71 Choice moment 1: Current truck turnaround times The first choice moment is about two containers (numbers 18 and 22) which are available at the same time, but on different terminals. Container 22 should be picked up at terminal I and the truck turnaround time at the moment of availability is 0:30h. Container 18 is discharged at terminal II. The truck turnaround time at the moment of availability is 1:00h. The truck turnaround times of the different terminals at later time moments are comparable. There is only one truck available. For all respondents this choice is evaluated. The results of this choice moment are presented in Table 5.2. In the scenario with information 9 people picked up container 22 first and only 1 person picked up container 18 first. In the scenario without information only 3 people chose to transport container 22 first. The impact of information about the truck turnaround times is clearly visible here. When people have more information they can make better choices and they will choose the option with the lower truck turnaround time. TABLE 5.2 CHOICE MOMENT 1 With information Without information Container Container This table shows how many respondents chose to transport a specific container first. So for the scenario with information 1 person picked up container 18 first and 9 people picked up container 22 first. Choice moment 2: Future truck turnaround times The second choice moment consists of two containers (numbers 25 and 27) with the same time of availability but from different deep sea terminals. The truck turnaround times are low at both terminals, but at terminal I the truck turnaround time will increase in the next time step. Container 25 should be picked up at this terminal. There is only one truck available, so the choice moment is to pick up container 25 first just before the higher truck turnaround times, or pick up container 27 first. In Table 5.3 the choices of the respondents are showed. It could be expected that when people have information about the truck turnaround times, they are more likely to pick up container 25 first, because when it will be picked up later it will cause unnecessary waiting times. But only 4 people chose to transport container 25 first and 6 people choose to transport container 27 first. For the scenario without information 6 people chose to transport container 25 first. There is no clear reason for that this behaviour is not as expected, but the fact that this choice is in the beginning of the game might have an influence. In the beginning most people were seeking for their strategy and maybe did not look to future truck turnaround times. It might be that when the game was played with real truck planners, the respondents did look further to the future which could lead to other results. TABLE 5.3 CHOICE MOMENT 2 With information Without information Container Container This table shows how many respondents chose to transport a specific container first. So for the scenario with information 4 people picked up container 25 first and 6 people picked up container 27 first. Choice moment 3: Urgent container This choice moment is more complex because there are three containers involved: numbers 16, 28 and 30, see Table 5.4. There are two trucks available for three containers. The first available 49

72 container is container 28, but this container has the latest delivery time. The truck turnaround time at the terminal where this container should be picked up is 1:30h and will increase to 2:00h in the next two time steps. Container 30 is the urgent container. TABLE 5.4 CONTAINERS CHOICE MOMENT 3 Container Time available Latest delivery time TTT at time available 16 13:00h 16:00h 1:00h 28 12:30h 17:00h 1:30h 30 (urgent) 13:00h 16:30h 2:00h All respondents chose to transport urgent container 30 at 13:00h, the time that the container will be available. The information did not have an impact of this decision. This might be because the urgent container should be transported directly in order to be on time. When this was not the case some people with information might have transported the urgent container later in order to deliver the other containers on time. Because there are two more containers the choices for these containers will be evaluated. The choices for the first container that is picked up are given in Table 5.5. Although container 16 is later available, the lower truck turnaround time and the earlier delivery time makes that more people chose to transport container 16 first. TABLE 5.5 CHOICE MOMENT 3 With information Without information Container Container This table shows how many respondents chose to transport a specific container first. So for the scenario with information 7 people picked up container 16 first and 3 people picked up container 28 first. 5.3 Conclusion In this chapter the impact of providing information about the predicted truck turnaround times is determined with a serious game. First the impact on the transport chain is determined with the total scores of the game. It appears that in the scenario with information 7% more containers are delivered on time, compared to the scenario without information. This is a significant improvement of the efficiency in the transport chain. For a truck operator, an efficiency improvement of 7% could lead to more trips per truck in the same time. Secondly, the influence of the information on the planning behaviour is determined with choice moments. These moments show that people make other choices if they have more information. When people have to choose between a container at a terminal with high truck turnaround times and a container at a terminal with low truck turnaround times they tend to choose for the low truck turnaround times. Choice moment 2 showed that people do not always look in to future time steps and the corresponding truck turnaround times. The game has been played with students, but real truck operators might do this differently and look further in the future. 50

73 The literature review in Chapter 3 showed that more or better exchange of information could lead to better utilization of resources, more efficiency in the transport chain, and shorter waiting times. This chapter showed that only providing information about the predicted truck turnaround times could lead to an increased efficiency of the transport chain. This efficiency increase could lead to a better utilization of the resources since trucks can make more trips in the same time. The game also showed that providing information about the predicted truck turnaround times could lead to shorter waiting times. Other advantages of sharing information between the deep sea terminal and hinterland parties are not proved with the game. But the game determined the impact of only one information type, so sharing other information types may lead to other or more advantages. 51

74 52

75 6 Conclusions In Section 1.3 the research question and sub questions are defined. The sub questions are answered in chapters 2 to 5. The first section of this chapter summarizes the answers on the sub questions, leading to the answer on the main research question. After this the results and used methods are discussed. The final section of this chapter gives recommendations for further research and for APMT MVII. 6.1 Conclusion The first sub question is about how the hinterland transport is currently organised and the information that is involved in hinterland transport. The container transport chain starts when the container is closed after loading the order shipment and ends when the container is opened at its final destination; the transport chain includes all the transport and handlings in between. The transport chain can be divided into an export transport chain from the factory to the deep sea terminal, the (deep) sea shipping, and the import transport chain from the deep sea terminal to the importer. In order to organise the hinterland transport there are multiple information flows between the different actors. Briefly the importer or exporter gives a freight forwarder order to organise the transport. The freight forwarder makes the bookings for the hinterland transport and confirms the bookings to the importer or exporter. The transport operator makes the appointment for delivering or picking up the container at the deep sea terminal. Besides the information exchange between hinterland parties that is necessary to organise hinterland transport, there is also information that is currently exchanged between the deep sea terminal and hinterland parties. This information can be divided in five groups: Container characteristics, container status, ETA/ETD (deep) sea vessels, terminal appointments, and terminal closures. The second sub question is about what is currently known about information exchange in literature. But there is not much literature written about information exchange in container transport chains. Therefore not only literature about information in container transport is taken into account, but also 53

76 literature about information in public transport because both types of transport have a lot of similarities. It can be concluded that more or better exchange of information could lead to a more reliable transport chain, higher utilization of resources, improved transport chain integration, more efficiency in the transport chain, a modal shift towards barge transport, and improved competitive positions of companies. There is not much literature written about which types of information should be exchanged. Therefore the information needs of hinterland parties are determined in this research, with the following methods (sub question 3): Gate survey. Used to determine the current lack of information. The gate survey is a short questionnaire that was filled out for every phone call to the gate by the gate employees of APMT MVII. Interviews. There were held 17 interviews with hinterland parties to discover their information needs and what the impact of the different types of information on their operations and daily activities would be. Questionnaires. The questionnaires were sent to hinterland parties to determine the importance of the different information types that were mentioned in the gate survey and the interviews. Serious game. The serious game was used to determine the impact of providing an information type to hinterland parties on the transport chain or on the behaviour of a transport planner. In the fourth sub question is asked for the information types that hinterland parties would like to receive from the deep sea terminal. With the gate survey and the interviews is investigated what these information types are. The information needs at container level are mainly about the current status of the container. This includes custom holds, the presence of the container at the deep sea terminal and other general information about the container status. Hinterland parties also want to know if a containers is already discharged. The information needs on transportation mean level are mainly about (deep) sea vessels. The related information types are for example the estimated time of arrival (ETA), estimated time of departure (ETD), cargo cut off time (CCO), and yard opening time (YOT). At deep sea terminal level, the information needs are mainly fixed information about the terminal (e.g. newsletter and closures) and information about predictions and future events. Often mentioned is the crowdedness at the terminal and the planning of the terminal. The importance of the information types from sub question 4 is determined for sub question 5. The information types mentioned in the gate survey and in the interviews were tested on importance in the questionnaires. The importance was rated on a scale from 1 to 7. The most important information types per actor group are listed in Table Table 6.1 provides an overview of the most important information types for the responses of all actor groups together. 54

77 TABLE 6.1 MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION TYPES - ALL ACTORS AND THE IMPORTANCE ON SCALE 1 TO 7 Containers Transportation means Deep sea terminal 1. Pre-check container available (6,8) 2. Confirmation import container discharged from (deep sea vessel (6,7) 3. Documents OK (6,7) 4. Container status for custom holds (6,6) 5. Presence container at deep sea terminal (6,6) 1. Delays (deep) sea vessels (6,8) 2. Estimated time of arrival (deep) sea vessel (ETA) (6,5) 3. Actual time of arrival (deep) sea vessel (ATA) (6,4) 4. Progress of discharging/loading (deep) sea vessel (6,0) 5. Changes in cargo cut off time (5,7) 1. Closures at deep sea terminal (6,8) 2. Malfunctions at deep sea terminal (6,5) 3. IT outage at deep sea terminal (6,3) 4. Explanation of different types of custom holds (6,2) 5. Barometer for crowdedness at the truck gate deep sea terminal (5,9) The last sub question is about the impact of providing information on the transport chain and on the individual behaviour of hinterland parties. Determine the impact of all information types would take too much time. Therefore only the impact of providing the predicted truck turnaround times is determined, this is done with a serious game. The game showed that providing information about the predicted truck turnaround times could lead to an efficiency improvement; up to 7% more containers could be delivered on time. With this efficiency improvement trucks can make more trips in the same time. The choice moments showed that planners make other choices when they have more information. People tend to choose for containers and terminals with low truck turnaround times. But the participants mostly looked to the truck turnaround times at the moment when they pick up a container. They did not look always to future truck turnaround times. These sub questions and answers contribute to the answer on the main research question. The main research question is defined in Section 1.3 as: What are the information needs of hinterland parties and how important are these information types for them? The information needs and the reasons why the information types are important, as mentioned in the interviews, are analysed. From the important information types there can be distinguished four different groups of information that are important to hinterland parties. These groups are placed in Table 6.2 per information level. TABLE 6.2 INFORMATION NEEDS OF HINTERLAND PARTIES: IMPORTANT INFORMATION GROUPS Containers Transportation means Deep sea terminal 1. Container status 2. Moment of availability container 3. Crowdedness at the deep sea terminal 4. Status terminal These groups of information are further explained below: 1. Container status. This group contains information about the releasement of a container, customs holds, reefer temperatures and other statuses. 2. Moment of availability container. This group contains all information that can be used to make an estimation of when a container will be available. This could be for example the arrival and departure times of (deep) sea vessels, the progress of discharging/loading a (deep) sea vessel, the expected time of discharge and the expected time for custom scans. 55

78 3. Crowdedness at the deep sea terminal. This are all information types about the crowdedness at the truck gate and the crowdedness at the barge quay. Hinterland parties want to know the crowdedness because they want to make an estimation of the truck turnaround times, and they have more information about the waiting times at the barge quay and the vessel planning for barges. 4. Status terminal. This is information about closures and malfunction at the deep sea terminal. When the terminal is closed, this directly influences the operations of hinterland parties and therefore these information types are important to know. There are no information groups at transportation mean level. This is because all information about the transportation means would be used to make estimations at container level. 6.2 Discussion This section gives two discussions. The first discussion is a reflection about the used methods. The second discussion is about the results of this research Reflection of the research methods There are several methods used for this research. Below all methods are reflected. Besides the used methods, a simulation is another method that could have been used. Simulation is shortly discussed after the reflection of the used methods. Gate survey The gate survey was a short questionnaire that was filled in by the gate employees of APMT MVII for every external phone call they received. This is a very labour intensive method to collect data. Because it was always very busy at the gate, the employees did not feel inclined to fill in the questionnaire. The total number of phone calls to the gate for that period is unknown so the response rate could not be calculated. Based on conversations with the gate employees and the gate coordinators is it likely to assume that the response rate is very low. Because the total number of responses (197) is high, it is assumed that all important topics are mentioned in these phone calls. Nothing could be concluded about how often problems are mentioned. Interviews There were 4 pre-interviews and 17 interviews done for this research. The pre-interviews were held because the quality of the results is strongly dependent on the skills of the interviewer. All interviews started as a free-attitude interview, because in theory this would lead to the information types that are most wanted by the hinterland parties. But not all interviewees were talkative enough for free-attitude interviews. These interviews were continued as semi structured interviews. These interviews are less useful because these types of interviews will lead to less new and out of the box ideas. The semi-structured interviews were more focussed on what influence the different types of information will have on their operations and daily activities. Before the interviews started, some of the interviewees had to fill in a previous version of the questionnaire. Initially this should have increased the response rate of the questionnaire, but after some respondents it appears that there were some improvements necessary for the questionnaire. These questionnaires were not taken into account in the results. The questionnaires before the interviews led to inspiration for the interviewee and thus less new and out of the box ideas. For this reason some interviews were biased. 56

79 Questionnaires The questionnaires were sent by to 75 companies and two reminders were sent, but there were only 20 responses. This is a response rate of 27%, which is not very high. The results were determined over all responses, which means that the truck operators have a relatively high share (45%), so their opinion counts more heavily. The results were also determined per actor group, but since there were only five responses for the barge operators and four responses for the importers these results are less reliable. The second scale where the respondents had to divide 100 points over the different information types formed an extra check and has a positive influence on the reliability of the results. Serious game The serious game was designed to test the impact of providing information about the predicted truck turnaround times on the transport chain and the planning behaviour of the respondents. The game contains a lot of simplifications compared to the real situation. This is because more complexity could lead to disruptions in the results. But on the other hand people could have made other choices under other circumstances. These factors were not taken into account in this research. The game was played with students of the TU Delft. Because most players knew some other players there were battles for who got the highest overall score. This resulted in that everyone played the game very serious and the reactions of the people were positive. But on the other hand 41% of the respondents were not taken into account because they contained mistakes or the total score was considered as an outlier. This high percentage could indicate that the game was too complex or too difficult. Afterwards it might have been better to make the game in a digital version. This could have prevented people from making mistakes and it would have been easier to get more respondents. When the game was played with real truck planners instead of students this might have led to other results because they have more feeling with the situation and planning. For example truck planners might have looked more to future truck turnaround times. Real truck planners unconsciously know a lot, for example the patterns in crowdedness over the day and week. Therefore they might have more focus on the deviations in truck turnaround times relative to an average day. However, playing the game with real truck planners was not possible for this research. The truck operators were also contacted for the interviews and the questionnaires, so playing the game with real truck planners would have been too much. The results of the individual choice moments look more extreme than the results of the overall efficiency. This can be explained by that the overall efficiency is measured by if a container is delivered on time or how many hours a container is delivered too late. When at a choice moment one chooses to transport a container first, in some cases the second container could also be on time. For the overall efficiency both containers will results in a point. Simulation Testing the impact of information could also have been done with a simulation. In a simulation the real world can be mimicked. The input for a simulation are the environment, the initial values for the (variable) parameters and the changes in the variables. A serious game and a simulation will not be used for the same purposes. The serious game is used to determine the impact of the provided information on the planning behaviour of truck planners. It is not possible to test this with a simulation, because all behaviour parameters are needed as input for the simulation and not as output or a result. 57

80 6.2.2 Results The conclusion of the research is that there are four main information groups in the information needs of hinterland parties. When this information will be provided to hinterland parties, they will face less uncertainties and unexpected situations. Importers, exporters and freight forwarders will have more information about the container, so when there are problems with the container (e.g. missing custom documents), they can solve these problems better and/or earlier. When they have more information about the crowdedness and status of the deep sea terminal, they can better adjust their operations. When transport operators have more information, they will be able to reduce waiting times and improve the efficiency and reliability of the hinterland transport. This will lead to a better utilisation of the transportation means. The information types needed by hinterland parties as determined in the gate survey and the interviews are based on today s transport processes. This means that when some information types are exchanged, the need for some other information types can decrease. This could happen when two different information types can be used for the same purpose. For example, when the estimated time of discharge of an import container is communicated, the need to know the progress in the loading and discharging a (deep) sea vessel will be lower. But it is also possible that some information types become more important or that additional information types are wanted or needed by hinterland parties. The main results are four different groups of information that are wanted by hinterland parties. When these information groups are categorised by information level, the first two information groups (container status and moment of availability container) are at container level. The last two information groups (crowdedness at the deep sea terminal and the status of the deep sea terminal) are at terminal level. It is remarkable that there are no information groups at transportation mean level. This could be explained by that the most important information types at transportation mean level will be used by hinterland parties to make better estimations and predictions at the lower container level. For example the estimated time of arrival and the progress of loading and discharging a (deep) sea vessel can be used to estimate when a container can be picked up or hinterland transport. 6.3 Recommendations In the past deep sea terminals have mainly focussed on deep sea transport and to a lesser extent on hinterland transport. Also in the literature the information exchange between deep sea terminals and hinterland parties is barely discussed. This thesis is a first step in the determination of the information needs of the hinterland parties. This section will give some recommendations for further research on this topic and some recommendations for APMT MVII Recommendations for further research The results of this research are based on relatively small sample sizes. To get a more reliable overview of the information needs of hinterland parties it is recommended to expand the research with more respondents for the different research methods. In the results per actor only the truck operators, barge operators and importers were taken into account. This was because there was only one freight forwarder and one exporter who filled in the questionnaire. To get a full overview of the information needs of hinterland parties it is recommended to do more research to these actor groups. 58

81 The game was a very simplistic version of the real world. It is recommended to make a more realistic game to see if the results are the same when there are more factors taken into account. It is also recommended to make multiple versions of the game. This makes it possible to see if there will be made the same choices under other circumstances at similar choice moments. The serious game is played with students from the TU Delft. It might have been better to play the game with real truck operators, because their planning behaviour might be different. They also might pay attention to other things than students do. Therefore it is recommended to also play the game with truck planners from truck companies. Only the impact of providing the expected truck turnaround times was determined with the serious game. The impact of the other information types are still unknown, therefore it is recommended to also determine the impact of the other (important) information types. This research is only focussed on the information types that hinterland parties want to receive. The way how hinterland parties want to receive information is discussed in the interviews to a limited extent and not included in this research. Further research on this is recommended Recommendations for APMT MVII During the interviews and gate surveys there were also mentioned some other things which were not very important for this research, but can be important for APMT MVII: Hinterland parties want a newsletter every month or every two months to hinterland parties. Example topics of the newsletter could be the developments of the terminal, the average productivity of the (quay) cranes, the average truck turnaround times, average modal split, new deep sea shipping services, and expectations for next period. When the newsletter will be send, make clear to hinterland parties that they can subscribe, especially to importers and exporters. Hinterland parties want to be able to do their pre-announcements via CDP. Because if hinterland parties are already logged on to the CDP to check the container, it is easier to do the pre-announcement in the same platform. (Pre-announcement via Portbase takes too much time.) Hinterland parties want more clearness about the reasons why containers are not OK, meanings of error codes and actions that need to be taken in case of an error. This could for example via a kind of reference card. This card could contain a roadmap to find out what the problems are and how these problems could be solved. Also the contact details of the terminal could be included in this reference card. The findability of DailyLifting and Termview can be improved. Investigate how often LiftingIntermodal will be used. Most barge operators are willing to cooperate, but freight forwarders, importers and exporters were not very enthusiastic, but also not negative. Because APMT MVII has its own custom scan, hinterland parties do not know when the containers will be scanned. It is recommended to provided more information about when containers will be scanned. 59

82 Reference list Alfalla-Luque, R., Medina-Lopez, C., & Dey, P. K. (2013). Supply chain integration framework using literature review. Production Planning & Control, 24(8-9), Baarda, D.B., Goede, M.P.M. de, and Teunissen, J. (1995). Basisboek kwalitatief onderzoek: Praktische handleiding voor het opzetten en uitvoeren van kwalitatief onderzoek. Houten: Stenfert Kroese. Bailey, J.E. and Pearson, S.W. (1983). Development of a tool for measuring and analysing computer user satisfaction. Management Science. 29 (5), Berg, R. Van den (2015). Strategies and new business models in intermodal hinterland transport. s Hertogenbosch: BOXPress. ISBN: Braziotis, C., Tannock, J.D.T (2011). Building the Extended Enterprise: Key Collaboration Factors. International Journal of Logistic Management, 22 (3), Chorus, C.G., Arentze, T.A., Molin, E.J.E., Timmermans, H.J.P., and Wee, B. Van, (2006). The value of travel information: decision strategy-specific conceptualizations and numerical examples. Transportation Research Part B, 40, Container Terminal Operations (2015). Retrieved in Coyle, J.J., Bardi, E.J., and Novack, R.A. (1994). Transportation (4 th edition). St Paul/Minneapolis: West Publishing Company. ISBN: Coyle, J.J., Novack, R.A., Gibson, B.J., and Bardi, E.J. (2011). Transportation (7 th edition). St Paul/Minneapolis: West Publishing Company. ISBN: Crainic, T.G., Gendreau, M., and Potvind, J-Y., (2009). Intelligent freigt-transportation systems: Assessment and the contribution of operation research. Transportation Research Part C, 17, Douma, A.M., Hillegersberg, J. Van, and Schuur, P.C. (2012). Design and evaluation of a simulation game to introduce a Multi-Agent system for barge handling in a seaport. Decision Support Systems, 53, Ducruet, C., and Horst, M. van der,. (2009) Transport integration at European ports: measuring he role and position of intermediaries. European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research, 9(2), Farag, S., and Lyons, G. (2010). Explaining public transport information use when a car is available: attitude theory empirically investigated. Transportation, 37, Flynn, B.B., Huo, B., Zhao, X (2010).: The impact of supply chain integration on performance: A contingency and configuration approach. Journal of Operations Management, 28, Giannopoulos, G.A. (2004). The application of information and communication technologies in transport. European Journal of Operational Research, 152, Grotenhuis, J.-W., Wiegmans, B., and Rietveld, P. (2007). The desired quality of integrated multimodal travel information in public transport: Customer needs for time and effort savings. Transport policy, 14,

83 Heilig, L., & Voß, S. (2014). A Cloud-Based SOA for Enhancing Information Exchange and Decision Support in ITT Operations. In Computational Logistics, Kenyon and Lyons (2003). The value of integrated multimodal traveller information and its potential contribution to modal change. Transportation research part F, 6, 1-21 Kriz, W. C. (2003). Creating effective learning environments and learning organizations through gaming simulation design. Simulation & Gaming, 34(4), Lee, H.L., and Whang, S. (1998). Information sharing in a supply chain. International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 1(1), Lyons, G., and Harman, R. (2002). The UK public transport industry and provision of multi-modal traveller information. International Journal of Transport Management, 1, Mayer, I.S., Carton, L., Jong, M. de, Leijten, M., and Dammers, E. (2004). Gaming the future of an urban network. Futures, 36, Mirzabeiki, V., Lumsden, K., and Stefansson, G. (2009) Smart transportation management systems to support visibility of the supply chain information types. Proceeding of the ITS World Congress, Stockholm. Neuman, W.L. (1994). Social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches (2 nd ed.). Massachusetts: Needham Heights. Neumann, S. and Segev, E. (1979). A case study of user evaluation of information characteristics for systems improvement. Information and Management, 2, Noordhoff Uitgevers. ba33-9b3bd /studiewijzer+enquete+opstellen.pdf?mod=ajperes&cacheid=630bd98c d-ba33-9b3bd Retrieved on Olesen, P.B., Hvolby, H.H., Steger-Jensen, K., Schmidt, M., and Knudsen, P. Designing information sharing for better coordination in a transport centre Olesen, P.B., Dukovska-Popovska, I., and Hvolby, H.H., (2013a). Improving Port Terminal Operations through Information Sharing. Advances in Production Management Systems. Competitive Manufacturing for Innovative Products and Service, Olesen, P. B., Hvolby, H. H., and Dukovska-Popovska, I. (2013b). Enabling information sharing in a port. Advances in Production Management Systems. Competitive Manufacturing for Innovative Products and Services, Oxford Dictionaries. retrieved on Panayides, P.M., and Song D.-W. (2009). Port integration in global supply chains: measures and implications for maritime logistics. International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, 12(2), Portbase (2011). Bargeplanning 3.0 voor terminals Instructieboekje. Instructionmanual Barge planning.pdf Portbase (2014). Portbase Service Selector. PORTBASE Service_Selector_NL.PDF 61

84 Portbase (2015). Optimale informatiestroom zorgt voor maximale doorstroming. Presentatie-MSCfebruari 2015.pptx. Prajogo, D., and Olhager, J. (2012). Supply chain integration and performance: The effects of longterm relationships, information technology and sharing, and logistics integration. International Journal of Production Economics 135(1), Ramstedt, L., & Woxenius, J. (2006). Modelling approaches to operational decision-making in freight transport chains. Proceedings from the NOFOMA 2006 conference. Smith, R. (2014). APIs are the EDI of the 21 st century. Retrieved on Stevens, G. C. (1989). Integrating the supply chain. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 19(8), 3-8 Strong, D.M., Lee, Y.W., and Wang, R.Y. (1997). Data quality in context. Communications of the acm, 40(5), Tijan, E., Aksentijevic, S., and Čišić, D. (2014). Seaport cluster information systems A foundation for Port Community Systems' architecture. In Information and Communication Technology, Electronics and Microelectronics (MIPRO), Tjokroamidjojo, D., Kutanoglu, R., and Don Taylor, G., (2006). Quantifying the value of advance load information in truckload trucking. Transportation Research Part E, 42, Tutorials Point (2015a). MIS Basic information concepts. ts.htm. Retrieved on Tutorials Point (2015b). MIS Classification of information. on.htm. Retrieved on Vanpoucke, E., Boyer, K.K., and Vereecke, A. (2009). Supply chain information flow strategies: an empirical taxonomy. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 29(12), Wiegmans, B., (2009). Container terminals in Europe. Cost, price efficiency and quality (2009). Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller. Woorden.org. Nederlands woordenboek. Retrieved on Zhou, H., Benton Jr., W.C. (2007). Supply chain practice and information sharing. Journal of Operations Management, 25, Zito, P., Amato, G., Amoroso, S., and Berrittella, M. (2011). The effect of Advanced Traveller Information Systems on public transport demand and its uncertainty. Transportmetrica, 7(1), Zuidwijk, R.A., and Veenstra, A.W. INTEGRITY CASE Part A. Zuidwijk, R.A. & Veenstra, A.W. (2015). The Value of Information in Container Transport. Transportation Science, 49(3),

85 63

86 Appendix list Appendix A. Information flows container export chains A.1 Information flows in the unimodal transport chain A.2 Intermodal transport Appendix B. Gate survey B.1 Questionnaire set-up B.2 Data B.3 Results B.4 Discussion gate survey Appendix C. Pre-interviews with hinterland parties C.1 Description pre-interviews C.2 List of questions C.3 Results Appendix D. Interviews Appendix E. Questionnaires E.1 Description questionnaire E.2 Questionnaire E.3 Results questionnaire E.4 Most important information based on 100 points scale Appendix F. Design of the game F.1 Map deep sea terminals and inland destinations F.2 Containers F.3 Game board F.4 Truck logbook Appendix G. Results game G.1 Results game scenario with information G.2 Results game scenario without information

87 Appendix A. Information flows container export chains The information flows that are necessary to organise the import hinterland transport are described in Section 2.4. This appendix gives the information flows that are necessary for the export hinterland transport. First the unimodal transport chain is described, second the intermodal transport chain. A.1 Information flows in the unimodal transport chain In Figure 2.3 the transport chain and the actors were given for both unimodal and intermodal transport. In this section the unimodal and intermodal transport chains have been split and the information flows are added. For unimodal transport this is done in Figure A. The unimodal truck flow from Figure 2.3 (exporter truck operator deep sea terminal shipping line) is placed in a semi-circle, with the same orange line for the physical flows. The blue lines were added to give an overview of the information flows. Confirmation of booking 6 Truck operator 11 Feedback appointment Make appointment to deliver 10 container(s) 5 Deep sea terminal Freight forwarder Request for transport 1 7 Confirmation of booking Make booking for truck transport Exporter Export declaration 8 Custom Authorities Custom approval or holds 9 3 Shipping line Make booking at the terminal Confirmation of booking 4 Physical flow Information flow 2 Make booking for deep sea transport FIGURE A FLOWS UNIMODAL TRANSPORT SOURCE: POWERPOINT PRESENTATION CDP STRATEGY. The process to organise the transport starts at the exporter, who places a request for transport at the freight forwarder (1). The freight forwarder makes a booking at the shipping line for the deep sea transport (2). On their turn, the shipping line makes a booking at the deep sea terminal (3) and then sends a confirmation of the booking for deep sea transport back to the freight forwarder (4). When the deep sea transport is confirmed, the freight forwarder makes a booking for truck transport at the truck operator (5), who ends a confirmation of the booking in return (6). All tasks of the freight forwarder are completed, so they send a confirmation of the bookings back to the exporter (7). The exporter needs to do the export declarations at the custom authorities (8) (sometimes this outsourced to the freight forwarder). The custom authorities informs the deep sea terminal about custom approval or holds (9). The last step in organising the unimodal transport chain is that the truck operator needs to make an appointment at the deep sea terminal to deliver the container (10). This is answered by the deep sea terminal with a TAR code which provides access to the terminal for the truck driver (11). 65

88 A.2 Intermodal transport In Figure 2.3 the transport chain and actors were also given for intermodal transport. Again, these actors were placed in a semi-circle with an orange line between them to indicate the physical flows (see Figure B). Confirmation of booking 8 5 Make booking for hinterland transport Truck operator Inland terminal 7 Make booking for truck transport 6 Make booking for barge transport Barge operator 13 Feedback appointment Make appointment to deliver 12 container(s) Deep sea terminal Freight forwarder Request for transport 1 9 Confirmation of booking Exporter Export declaration 10 Custom Authorities Custom approval or holds 11 Make booking at the terminal 3 Shipping line Confirmation of booking 4 Physical flow Information flow 2 Make booking for deep sea transport FIGURE B FLOWS INTERMODAL TRANSPORT SOURCE: POWERPOINT PRESENTATION CDP STRATEGY. The information flows to organise intermodal transport are mostly the same as for unimodal transport. An important difference is that there are more actors in intermodal transport that perform the hinterland transport. Until number (4), the confirmation of the booking from shipping line to freight forwarder is the same for unimodal and intermodal transport. But in intermodal transport, most times the freight forwarder makes the booking for hinterland transport at an inland terminal (5). Most inland terminals also perform as a barge operator, so the booking is forwarded to the barge planning department (6). The inland terminal also makes a booking for the first mile transport by truck (7). When this is done, a confirmation of booking is sent back to the freight forwarder (8). It is possible that the freight forwarder makes individual bookings at the barge and truck operator, but in the hinterland of the Port of Rotterdam it is more common that the inland terminal books the inland transport. When the hinterland transport is arranged, the information flows (10-13) are the same as for unimodal transport (8-11). Only, not a truck operator makes an appointment at the terminal, but a barge operator. 66

89 Appendix B. Gate survey To determine the problems with information exchange between the hinterland parties and the terminals, the phone calls to the terminal gate were registered on several days. When hinterland parties face a problem because they have a lack of information, they will call the terminal. So when all these phone call will be registered, it provides an overview of the current problems in the information exchange. B.1 Questionnaire set-up The phone calls are registered by using a questionnaire. The questionnaire for the gate should be as short as possible to increase the ease of filling out the questionnaire for the gate employees. This will increase the response rate. There were 7 questions in the questionnaire. The first four questions were container number, booking number, PINcode, and TARcode. These data are not important for the research, but are included to increase the ease of filling out the survey. The last three questions are the important ones for the research: modality, subject of the phone call, and if the person who called the gate could have found the answer online, e.g. via the PCS, webportal or website. In order to increase the ease of filling out the questionnaire, the last three questions were multiple choice. The questionnaire was in Dutch, because all employees at the gate are Dutch. The questionnaire is given below. 67

90 The questionnaire was held on five days, from 7.00h until 23.00h. To spread out these days over the different shifts, the days were spread out over 6 weeks. Initially it were 6 days (Sunday until Friday) spread out over 4 weeks, but not all day have led to valid results because at some days the gate employees did not fill out the questionnaire. Most of these days were replaced and redone. There are viable results for the following days: (Sunday) (Thursday) (Tuesday) (Friday) (Monday) Only the Wednesday is missing, but it is assumed that there are no different problems or questions on Wednesday compared to other (week)days. 68

91 B.2 Data This section will give a short summary of all data collected from the gate questionnaire. In total there were 197 phone calls registered, spread out over the five days as followed: TABLE A NUMBER OF PONE CALLS PER DAY Day Number of phone calls (Sunday) (Thursday) (Tuesday) (Friday) (Monday) 33 Total 197 For every phone call the modality was registered, this is summarized below: TABLE B NUMBER OF PHONE CALLS PER MODALITY Modality Number of phone calls Truck 133 Barge 31 Train 0 Deep sea 19 ETT 1 Other 13 Total 197 The most important results were given in Chapter 4. This appendix will give some more data on which the results and conclusions are based. Below all topics of the phone calls are split out over the modalities truck and barge. Deep sea and ETT are not taken into account, because deep sea is not in the scope of this research and there were to less response for ETT. 69

92 All modalities Truck Barge 7% 23% 4% 4% 1% 12% 15% 1% 12% 8% 8% 4% 6% 3% 4% 0% 12% 17% 5% 16% 2% 14% 9% 12% 8% 0% 8% 3% 0% 13% 20% 2% 3% 18% 10% 0% 15% FIGURE C TOPICS PHONE CALLS The last question in the questionnaire was if the hinterland party was able to find the answer online instead of making a phone call to the terminal gate. The results of this question are given below in the pie charts. Could the answer be found online? Where could the answer be found? Termview No Yes Unknown Portbase DailyLifting Termview/Por tbase FIGURE D WAS THE HINTERLAND PARTY ABLE TO FIND THE ANSWER ONLINE? 70

93 When these data are split out over the different information levels, it will result in the following pie charts: Could the answer be found online? Transportation mean Terminal yes no unknown yes no unknown Container - Preannouncement not OK Contianer - other yes no unknown yes no unknown FIGURE E WAS THE HINTERLAND PARTIE ABLE TO FIND THE ANSWER ONLINE? SPLIT OUT OVER LEVELS B.3 Results All phone calls could be divided into the different levels as mentioned in chapter 3: container, transportation mean and terminal. Because the high share of pre-announcements which are not OK, there is a distinction made in the container level between pre-announcement not OK and other questions. The number of phone calls per level is given in Table C. TABLE C NUMBER OF PHONE CALLS ABOUT CONTAINERS, TRANSPORTATION MEANS AND TERMINAL Level Number of phone calls Container Pre-announcement not OK Other Transportation mean 30 Terminal 18 The high share of pre-announcement not OK indicates that there are a lot of ambiguities of what actions need to be taken in case of a pre-announcement not OK. It might be that the notification of 71

94 the error in the pre-announcement is unclear. It is also possible that it is unclear what actions need to be taken for the different types of errors. From all pre-announcements not OK, 38,8% of the answers could have been found online (and 14,1% unknown). This indicates that there is an improvement for online information provision to decrease high percentage of phone calls where the answers could not have been found online (47,1%) But there is also a potential to improve the awareness of provided information at hinterland parties. When the awareness increases, the hinterland parties would more search for online information, rather than call the gate of the terminal. Another option would be to make it easier to make a pre-announcement. For example, some shipping lines have several codes. When the wrong code is given, there will be an error in the pre-announcement. The terminals could be more flexible with these types of mistakes, so when a wrong code is given, automatically change it to the right code. Also a better explanation of the error codes would probably help the hinterland parties to better understand the errors. Other questions at container level besides pre-announcement not OK could be making a preannouncement, checking the status of a container or checking a booking. 42,6% of the answers could have been found online (47,5% not online and 9,8% unknown). Also for these phone calls it holds that hinterland parties often do not know where they have to look for information. So there should be an increase in awareness of the provided information at hinterland parties. At the transportation mean level there were question about the ETA/ETD, CCO and YOT which could all have been found online. Some questions were about errors in the systems. For example a truck who has a pre-announcement OK for all of his containers, but don t get a TAR code (Truck Appointment Reference code, required to enter the terminal). Other questions were for example about the booking, combining containers for one TAR code, and load and discharge lists. The answers on 60,0% of the phone calls on transportation mean level could not be found online. This means that there is a potential to improve the information provision at transportation mean level. On terminal level there were 18 phone calls. But 61,1% of the answers could not be found online. Examples of these questions are disturbances or delays at the terminal. Only 22,2% of the answers could have been found online. So there is a big potential to improve the information provision on terminal level. Especially the information provision about terminal errors and disturbances could be better. Not only when there is something wrong, but also when the disturbance is fixed. B.4 Discussion gate survey In Table C the number of registered phone calls is given. Sunday was the quietest day, which makes sense, because a lot of companies mainly work from Monday until Friday. Remarkable is that there were fewer phone calls registered on Monday and Friday, than on Tuesday and Thursday. But because in the weekends the operations go on, but without office staff, Monday and Friday should be the busiest days. This is also confirmed by the gate/data EDI clerks, who filled out the surveys. This could mean that not all phone calls are registered, but just a part of them. For example it is known that there was no gate coordinator on Friday from 17.00h until 23.00h. In this period there were no questionnaires filled out. Also the gate staff said that not all phone calls were registered, so there were more phone calls than the registered ones. This means that the data are incomplete, but it is not possible to determine how many phone calls are missing in the survey data. The consequence of incomplete data is that it is not possible to say how often hinterland parties call the terminal. But although the data does not give a complete and extensive view of all problems, it gives a good overview of which problems are faced by hinterland parties. 72

95 Appendix C. Pre-interviews with hinterland parties To get a better view of the problems and information needs and wants of the hinterland parties, there were four pre-interviews held (see Table D). In these interviews, the hinterland parties were asked for their opinion about the current way of exchange information and the current platforms. C.1 Description pre-interviews In the first part of the pre-interviews the questions were focussed on where they thought there would be improvements in information exchange and how they think these improvements could be implemented best. The second part of the pre-interview was focussed on what additional types of information they would like to have. The subsequent questions were why they want to have that information, what they would do with that information and how they would like to receive that information. TABLE D PRE-INTERVIEWS Company type Company Date Exporters Aviko , 14.00h Freight forwarders Damco , 10.30h Truck operators Van Orselen , 15.00h Barge operators CTU , 10.00h C.2 List of questions 1. Company a. How many TEU s are moved per year? b. What are the hours of operations? c. What are the daily jobs and activities? d. With which actors from the transport chain do you have contact? 2. APMT MVII a. Which ports and deep sea terminals do you often use? b. What do you think of APMT MII compared to other terminals? c. What are the good points at APMT MVII? d. What could be better at APMT MVII? 3. Portbase a. At APMT MVII containers should be pre-announces in Portbase. Is this a good way for pre-announcements. b. Do you use Portbase for pre-announements at other terminals? c. Which problems do you face with Portbase? d. How could these problems be solved? 4. TERMView a. Do you use Termview? b. If yes, for what and how often? c. If no, why not? 73

96 5. Improvements information exchange a. Do you use other ways to exchange information? (webportals, telephone, etc.) b. Which devices do you use for information exchange? (Computer, Tablet, tefephone, scanner, etc.) c. Which additional information do you like to receive? d. At which way do you like to receive this information? e. Which functionalities in information exchange do you miss? f. How would you like to see these functionalities? g. APM Terminals is developing a new platform. When this information is communicated via this platform, would you use it? C.3 Results The most important thing mentioned by everyone, except the freight forwarder, was that they really like to know the expected time of discharge from a deep sea vessel. With this information they could deliver the container earlier at its destination, optimise their planning and reduce waiting times. The best way to receive this information will probably via Portbase, the PCS of the Port of Rotterdam. The freight forwarder was the only one that did not want this information, because if they know it, their clients would also know it. They expected that it would result in extra (time) pressure from their clients. The benefits for them of knowing the estimated time of discharge are that they have more time to transport the container by barge or the container could be delivered earlier at the destination. The freight forwarder thinks that those benefits of knowing the estimated discharge time and would be lower than the disadvantages of the pressure from the clients. Another important thing was the PCS Portbase. Not all shippers were aware of the fact that they need to send the custom documents via Portbase (especially small shippers in e.g. Austria or Switzerland). The interviewed hinterland parties also like to have more information of the status of the container, e.g. (type of) custom blockade, (type of) releasement, availability etc. In the current situation they first need to do a pre-announcement. For the barge operator Portbase needs to be more dynamic. It took too much time between the pre-announcement of a barge and the feedback from the terminal on the time request. The last often mentioned information type is how busy it is on the terminal. This could be measured at three ways: crowdedness at the barge quay, crowdedness at the truck gate, and truck turnaround time. The exporter also wants to have a long term report of the truck turnaround time, to see when there are peaks and lows. He could adapt his schedule to this report, so for example more transport during the night. The other mentioned information types will are not described but are listed below, because the list is too long. Container Desired temperature reefers Actual temperature reefers Container loaded/discharged Tracking/tracing containers Pre-check documentation OK Expected time of discharge 74

97 Gate in/gate out terminal overseas Arrival/departure deep sea vessel at terminal overseas Transportation mean Delays deep sea vessel Available capacity barges Terminal Actual truck turnaround time Free time slots at truck gate Malfunctions terminal Free time slots at barge quay Departures barges from terminal Long term report truck turnaround times Causes long truck turnaround times Long term report free time slots at the truck gate Long term report free time slots ate the barge quay 75

98 Appendix D. Interviews Besides the pre-interviews and gate surveys, some more interviews were held (see Table E). Important questions during the interviews were why the different types of information are important (or not) and how they would like to receive the information. For the unknown information it was asked how they would use the information and how they would benefit from receiving that information. TABLE E INTERVIEWS Company type Companies Date Importers Total produce Frugiventa (branch organisation) Hema Exporters Freight forwarders Truck operators Barge operators Heineken Sabic Philips DHL Neele-Vat Thermotraffic Design Logistics Overbeek transport Post-Kogeko Pro-log Danser Contargo CTB MCT , 10.00h , 12.30h , 10.00h , 10.00h , 10.00h , 10.00h , 10.00h , 9.30h , 10.00h , 9.30h , 9.00h , 13.00h , 15.00h , 15.00h , 10.00h , 15.00h , 10.00h It is assumed that three interview per actor is enough. This was tested with the barge operators. In total five different barge operators were interviewed, but the outcomes of the fourth and the fifth interview were not different from the first three, and there were hardly any new insights or viewpoint. From this it could be concluded that three interviews per actor is enough. Also the Groentenfruithuis was interviewed. This is a branch organisation which did an extensive research to the information needs in the supply chain of the fruit and vegetable import companies. For the results, the Groentenfruithuis was seen as an importer. The most mentioned information needs per level of information will be further explained below. Container The most obvious information at container level is container characteristics and container status. Most container characteristics are already known by hinterland parties. New characteristics they like to know are the container characteristics given by the pre-announcement of the shipping line and the characteristics as known by the terminal, because sometimes these characteristics differ from the characteristics as known by the hinterland parties. In the current situation the container status will only be known after the pre-announcement. That means that the operators have to make an appointment before they know if the container is OK. For truck this could mean that the appointment needs to be rescheduled if the status is not OK. The impact for barge will be bigger. Because the pre-announcement contains multiple containers and barges make calls at multiple containers it is not easy to reschedule the appointment if one container 76

99 is not OK. This would have influence on all other containers or will change the load and discharge list. Therefore barge operators like to know the container status before making a pre-announcement. Hinterland parties also want more information about damages at containers or cargo and a prediction when containers will be scanned for a custom check. When it will be communicated when container will be scanned, hinterland parties could make a better planning. Especially importers and exports of refrigerated cargo really would like to know the temperature of reefers. They would like to know the actual temperature to check if it is between the limits. The deviations from the set temperature are nice to have, but only useful if also the set temperature is given. For truck operators it is also good to know the desired temperature, because then they can decide if they need to connect the reefer. Also the expected time of discharge is an often mention information type. In the current situation the hinterland parties only know the ETA and ETD of the deep sea vessel, but the difference between those times could be up to 48 hours. This causes hidden delays and peaks at the terminals. So when the expected time of discharge will be communicated, it could lead to earlier delivery of the container at its final destination. But it could also lead to a more reliable planning and more barge transport. For the terminal it could lead to fewer peaks. Transportation mean At APMT MVII it is mandatory to make a pre-announcement before picking up or delivering one or more containers. For most hinterland parties this makes their operations less flexible, therefore changing the timeslots should be easier. Also making the pre-announcement should be a lot easier, sometimes it takes 30 minutes for a pre-announcement, which is too long. Hinterland parties also want the option to send the import documents before the container is discharged from the deep sea vessel, because that gives more flexibility. The ETA and ETD of the deep sea vessels are communicated by the shipping line and by the terminal. Hinterland parties would like to have more accurate information about the delays of the deep sea vessel, but also about changes in YOT and CCO. They have the feeling that not all shipping lines are communicating this well, so they also like to receive this information from the terminal. They like to receive an for delays in the near future. Another information type is the arrivals and departures of barges at the terminal and their capacity. This is an idea of APMT MVII and the support of hinterland parties for this idea is checked in the interviews. Most barge operators are willing to share their capacity and destinations, but they were not very keen on it because they do not believe that it would make a big difference. One freight forwarder said that he would like to see barges as a bus service, for him this would lead to more ad hoc barge planning and a higher modal split for barge transport. Terminal Often mentioned information at terminal level are newsletters and information about IT-outages and malfunctions at the terminal. In newsletters they want to receive information about the development and productivity of the terminal. They want to receive the information about IToutages and malfunction via an , because then they could easily forward the information to their transport operators or clients. Also an overview with possible error codes for when a preannouncement is not OK. Information about the crowdedness at the terminal was often mentioned during the interviews. For the trucks this contains how many trucks there are on the terminal, but also the truck turnaround times. With this information, truck operators could make a better planning. When most slots in a 77

100 certain timeslot are reserved, time at which the truck operator is making the pre-announcement will be earlier, because when he would make the pre-announcement later, there is a chance that the timeslot is full. The truck operators said that they would not make a pre-announcement for another timeslot. But when they see that the truck turnaround time is very high, they will check if they can adopt their planning and choose another, less crowded timeslot. This information would make the planning of the truck operator better. Barge operators want more insight in the quay planning of the terminal. This is useful for when the planning of a barge changes, it could be checked if it is possible to switch with other barge operators. Barge operators also would like to have more insight in the capacity of the terminal. With this information they could optimise their own planning and schedule better connections with other terminals. 78

101 Appendix E. Questionnaires The pre-interviews and gate surveys provided a good overview of the different information types. These information types were listed in a questionnaire, together with the results of the gate surveys (see appendix 4.2). There are also some information types added, based on discussions at APMT MVII. E.1 Description questionnaire The questionnaire starts with some general question about the companies: company name, company type, number of TEU per year and the job title of the person filling out the questionnaire. This is followed by a list of information types. For all information there is a scale from 1 to 7, from not important to very important. For all information types the hinterland parties should rank the importance. Because the questionnaire is equal for all hinterland parties, there is also an option not applicable. After ranking the information types, there is a second column. For this column the hinterland party gets 100 points which should be divided over the information types. Important information types will get more point and less important information types will get less or none points. This should be done both for the known and unknown information. When someone ranks a lot of information types very important, the 100 points will force them to choose between the different information types and make another ranking. The questionnaire was made both in English and in Dutch. The English version could be found on the next page. TABLE F RESPONSES QUESTIONNAIRE COMPANY TYPE QUESTIONNAIRES SEND RESPONSES RESPONS RATE Truck operators % Barge operators % Freight forwarders % Importers % Exporters % The goal was 15 questionnaires per actor group. For the freight forwarders there were send more questionnaires, because the contact details are known at APMT MVII and freight forwarders were less willing to have an interview. So the expectation is that they are also less willing to fill out the questionnaire. Therefore the questionnaire was send to two more freight forwarders. The same holds for importers and exporters, but they usually do not have contacts with a deep sea terminal which means that it is harder to get their contact details 79

102 E.2 Questionnaire 80

103 81

104 82

105 E.3 Results questionnaire TABLE G RESULT QUESTIONNAIRES TRUCK OPERATORS AND BARGE OPERATORS - CONTAINERS 83

106 TABLE H RESULT QUESTIONNAIRES IMPORTERS AND ALL ACTORS CONTAINERS 84

107 TABLE I RESULT QUESTIONNAIRES TRUCK OPERATORS AND BARGE OPERATORS - TRANSPORTATION MEAN 85

108 TABLE J RESULT QUESTIONNAIRES IMPORTERS AND ALL ACTORS - TRANSPORTATION MEANS 86

109 TABLE K RESULT QUESTIONNAIRES TRUCK OPERATORS AND BARGE OPERATORS - DEEP SEA TERMINAL 87

110 TABLE L RESULT QUESTIONNAIRES IMPORTERS AND ALL ACTORS - DEEP SEA TERMINAL 88

111 E.4 Most important information based on 100 points scale TABLE M RESULT QUESTIONNAIRES - MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION TYPES "100 POINTS SCALE" 89