The research aims to support the development of the multimodal transport system in the Netherlands, and by extension, in Europe, into a truly synchromodal transport system, in which infrastructure use, transport services and operations are perfectly aligned with market demand. This requires the integration of data on infrastructure, services and transportation, the development of new synchromodal control mechanisms, and the further analysis of demand characteristics of shippers. This project provides the academic underpinning of the ambition and innovation vision that is formulated for synchromodality in the Topsector Logistics. So far research has mainly addressed horizontal alignment between modes into a coherent network. The main research angle for this project is the vertical alignment, i.e. the shipper/client orientation and the relations with the underlying network management. In addition to the fact that these vertical relations constitute scientifically unexplored territory, we argue that they are of critical importance for the deployment of synchromodal transport services. In short, if service demand is difficult to predict and if capacity availability is uncertain, the synchromodal service market will not function.
Academic contributions include
(1) improved freight modelling by improving the representation of shippers? supply chain considerations
(2) quantification of the impact of the level of information exchange and collaboration / competition among organizations on synchromodal planning and execution
(3) new real-time decision making approaches and pricing mechanisms for synchromodal solutions
(4) the development of information concepts that enable "data synchromodality"