Modal Shift in Total Logistics

For several years, shippers, service providers and the inland terminal Markiezaat have worked intensively together in Bergen op Zoom with corresponding inland shipping links from and to Rotterdam and Antwerp. The inland terminal has grown rapidly in TEU volumes (from the start in 2007 now heading towards 100,000!).

To date, the cooperation has resulted in better decisions regarding (sea) shipping companies, which has considerably increased the recycling of containers. In addition to these improvements, regular consultation between the major shippers in the service area and the logistics companies has resulted in an improved harmonization of transport demand and transport availability. Even so, the participants in the collaborative venture (“the table”) experienced the cooperation as tunneled from an operational/workflow perspective. The individual companies have set up ERP systems to manage their own operating processes.

The Dinalog-project participants would like to engage in the following step and realize an integrated method through the establishment of a Synchromodal Service Center with an integrated control function. We mean by this that the participating parties define a single logistic management approach.

This method can only come about with the right support from information systems. This is the reason that within this project a so-called multi-actor order management layer has been introduced.

Through this layer, parties involved can supplement information about individual containers, facilitating optimum operational decisions (matching import-export, a-modal booking ..) by the implementing parties (inland terminal and barge operator/ rail operator). Through this “layer”, where possible, the exchange of information and flow of documents will be organized as paperless. Through this integrated approach, the project teams expect to arrive at new insights during the course of the project, which will serve to intensify the collaboration even further. We expect a 4C-type construction to arise, in which Markiezaat will form the axis of the cooperation.

The key benefits of the project that currently cannot be realized due to tunneled information availability:
– greater modal split opportunities barge / rail,
– improved exchange import and export,
– greater supply reliability through paperless import and export,
– savings in administrative overhead.

Facts & Figures

68.910 teu extra transported over water
Reduction van empty container flows
Synchromodal possibilities


Startdate: 31 Jul 2013
Enddate: 30 Jun 2014

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