intermodal transportation research paper topics

An Open Access Journal

• Original Paper
• Open access
• Published: 02 February 2017

Review of intermodal freight transportation in humanitarian logistics

• Mustafa Alp Ertem 1 ,
• Melike İşbilir 1 &
• Ayşenur Şahin Arslan 2  

European Transport Research Review volume  9 , Article number:  10 ( 2017 ) Cite this article

8360 Accesses

24 Citations

Metrics details

Using intermodal transportation is vital for the delivery of relief supplies when single mode alternative becomes unusable or infeasible. The objective of this paper is to investigate the use of intermodal freight transportation in humanitarian logistics.

This paper first identifies the differences between multimodal and intermodal transportation. Then, we examine the use of each transportation mode for specific disaster types and phases. When combinations of transportation modes (i.e. air, road, rail and sea) for intermodal transportation are considered together with different disaster types (e.g. earthquake, flood and famine), the feasible decision space becomes rather large. To explore this decision space, we have reviewed the academic and practitioner studies as well as several non-governmental organizations (NGO)’ disaster archives.

From this exploration, we developed a transportation mode/disaster-type combination matrix and a transportation mode/disaster-phase combination matrix. We then discuss examples of real life usage of intermodal transportation in humanitarian logistics and share our findings and analyses. Of 369 academic humanitarian logistics articles, only 20 have mentioned transportation mode changes. In practitioner studies, we found a decreasing percentage of the usage of slower modes (e.g. sea and rail) in the disaster response phase over time. We were not able to find a significant relationship between a specific transportation mode and a specific disaster-type or -phase. Road transportation seems to cover most of the disaster operations regardless of the disaster-type or -phase.

Conclusions

We can conclude that intermodality and the transportation unit concept is not being studied extensively in humanitarian logistics. Most of the relief organizations do not share transported freight amounts in their reports and those that do share transported freight amounts in their reports do not explicitly mention mode changes. We discuss the enablers of and obstacles to the effective use of intermodal transportation in humanitarian logistics and propose future research directions. We anticipate that intermodal transportation in humanitarian logistics will garner greater research attention and increased utilization in coming years.

1 Introduction

The number of natural and man-made disasters has been increasing in recent years and these disasters have affected many people. To prevent the loss of lives and help the victims of a disaster, response times must be minimized. Disaster operations management can be divided into four phases: mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery [ 1 ]. In the mitigation phase, a risk analysis of the settlements and public education is performed. Resource planning and the advance purchase of supplies is carried out in the preparedness phase. The response phase includes activities related to needs assessment, resource mobilization and the transportation of relief aids. Finally, the recovery phase entails the removal of all debris and rebuilding essential infrastructure. After the onset of any disaster, the current situation is assessed, and then resources are mobilized for transport to the disaster area. If required, relief aid is also procured and transportation operations are managed. Logistics operations are important in the humanitarian relief chain and account for around 80% of all disaster relief activities [ 2 ].

Because of the critical importance of speed, especially in the response phase, many alternatives should be considered to deliver relief items as quickly as possible within the available budget and resources. This can be accomplished by the utilization of various transportation modes (i.e. road, rail, air and water), which can increase the range of options for the decision maker. Moreover, using alternative transportation modes depending on the characteristics of the disaster might be the only option to reach affected people because of the extent of damage to the transportation infrastructure.

Three main types of transportation systems are defined in the utilization of multiple transportation modes. Multimodal transportation refers to passenger or freight transportation from an origin to a destination using two or more transportation modes. Intermodal transportation is a type of multimodal freight transportation that uses an intermodal transport unit (ITU) (e.g. container) with no handling of the goods themselves between mode changes. Combined transportation is a type of multimodal freight transportation that excludes air transport and where most the trip occurs by rail or on waterways with only the initial and final legs of the trip occurring on road. The reader is referred to [ 3 ] for a compilation of these definitions. It should also be noted here that air and sea transport do not lend themselves to unimodal ( i.e. single-mode) transportation of freight. Air and sea transport are almost always coupled with either rail/road transport or both. On the other hand, rail and road transport could be used as unimodal and possibly interchangeably. Choice between rail and road transport depends mostly on economic matters and the availability of the required infrastructure (i.e. rail ramp, crane, etc.) and qualified human resource at the transhipment hubs.

Humanitarian relief activities are vital, and even a very small improvement in the process can yield great impacts on people’s lives. That’s why academicians and practitioners are continuously in search of new methods to improve these activities, especially in recent years due to the increasing number of massive disasters. Investigating alternative ways to transport relief supplies using multiple modes and decreasing transportation times by utilizing a transportation unit can yield remarkable results for the beneficiaries. On the other hand, considering that logistics systems are highly dependent on human effort (e.g. drivers, carriers, warehouse employees, etc.) and the disaster environment is subject to change in subsequent phases of disaster management, transportation operations are inherently difficult to coordinate. If not coordinated wisely, the expected advantages of utilizing multiple modes may not be obtained. Thus, investigating the use of intermodal freight transportation in humanitarian logistics, in both research and practice, is the main objective of this study.

The rest of this paper is organized as follows: In the second section, we explain our methodology used to find academic studies and practical usage examples, as well as our strategy for choosing those to investigate. In section 3, we present our analyses of studies in emergency management, humanitarian logistics and disaster relief distribution, in particular. We then discuss the utilization of multiple modes both in academic research and real life disasters. In section 4, we analyse our findings and suggest future research directions. Finally, we draw our conclusions in section 5.

2 Literature review methodology

In this section, we present our methodologies for identifying relevant studies, for selecting some for further examination and for analysing the features of the relevant studies. We considered both academic and practitioner studies, but the approaches we used to investigate each type differed in several ways.

2.1 Academic studies

While the transportation aspect of disaster operations management is the focus of this paper, it is important to have an overall perspective of the main topics in this field. We selected the seven literature review studies most related to disaster operations management, humanitarian logistics and transportation in humanitarian logistics, including those by Altay and Green [ 1 ], Galindo and Batta [ 4 ], Caunhye et al. [ 5 ], Natarajarathinam et al. [ 6 ], Apte [ 7 ], Anaya-Arenas et al. [ 8 ] and de la Torre et al. [ 9 ].

Altay and Green [ 1 ] conducted a survey of literature published between 1980 and 2004 that focused on the use of operations research in emergency management. Studies were analysed with respect to the phases and disaster types, suggestions were made for future research in some of these papers and explanations were given regarding problems in emergency management. Inspired by the work of Altay and Green [ 1 ], Galindo and Batta [ 4 ] continued their analysis by considering articles published between 2005 and 2010, to determine whether any of the gaps identified by Altay and Green [ 1 ] had been addressed in new research efforts. Galindo and Batta [ 4 ] compared the new studies with those investigated by Altay and Green [ 1 ], with respect to their methodology, disaster phase and type. Future research directions were also updated in Galindo and Batta [ 4 ]. Similarly, Caunhye et al. [ 5 ] studied the role of optimization models in emergency management by classifying the literature into two main categories—facility location and relief distribution.

In addition to the above three reviews focused on operations research, Natarajarathinam et al. [ 6 ] focused on the supply chain management literature in emergency management. In their paper, the authors classified the literature reviewed according to the scale, stage and source of the crisis and made future research suggestions in consideration of the gaps identified. Apte [ 7 ] compared humanitarian logistics with military and commercial logistics, and discussed the role of the supply chain during preparation, response phases and relief operations as well as other issues in humanitarian logistics, including information flow and risk management. Anaya-Arenas et al. [ 8 ] and de la Torre et al. [ 9 ] specifically surveyed relief item distribution. While the former paper gave special attention to the response phase and investigated transportation, location and network design problems, the latter evaluated resource allocation, needs assessment and uncertainty in demand and supply and vehicle routing. Both studies investigated how these issues were handled in the literature and ended their papers by recommending future research directions. The reference lists of these seven literature reviews enabled us to capture a broad range of studies in emergency management and humanitarian logistics. Table 1 displays the number of studies reviewed in each article.

The first and third columns of the table list the names of the seven reviewed studies, and the second and fourth columns show the number of articles referenced in each paper reviewed. We captured 726 studies from the reference lists of the seven literature review articles and reduced this number to 391 by eliminating poster presentations, white papers, magazine articles and duplicates. Later, we found 29 of them to be irrelevant to emergency management. We categorized the remaining 362 studies with respect to several criteria, including their models, methods and disaster phases considered, multimodality–intermodality, transportation modes used, geographical region and the data sets on which the models were tested.

These 362 studies include academic articles, book chapters, conference proceedings, M.Sc. theses, Ph.D. dissertations and case studies. The distribution of these publications by year is given in Fig.  1 . An ascending slope, especially after the 1990s, indicates the increasing interest in this research area.

Number of publications with respect to years

Since these seven literature review articles do not cover all the literature to date, in addition to the reference lists of these articles, we searched three scientific databases (EBSCO, Web of Science and IEEE) to reach multimodal and/or intermodal studies in humanitarian logistics. By searching the keywords ‘humanitarian logistics’ OR ‘emergency management’ OR ‘emergency transportation’ AND ‘intermodal transportation’ OR ‘multimodal transportation’ OR ‘intermodal freight transportation’, we found seven recent studies related to multimodal and/or intermodal transportation. Thus, we minimized the chances of missing any studies relevant to our review.

2.2 State of practice

Since transportation is vital in humanitarian logistics, applications of intermodal freight transportation in humanitarian logistics in real life situations are of particular interest. Regardless of the existence of academic studies on multimodal and/or intermodal transportation in humanitarian logistics, we claim that practitioners should already have been benefiting from multiple modes when transporting relief supplies. We examined several international and national organization websites and databases to assess the validity of this claim.

Of the many international humanitarian organizations, we first investigated those with large databases. Later, we selected other major organizations that deliver aid to many places and some database websites. Besides searching their reports–both annual and related to specific events—we also filtered their databases using keywords such as ‘transportation,’ ‘mode,’ ‘logistics,’ and ‘vehicle’ to capture any information about the volume of relief supplies sent and the type of transportation network used.

3 Usage of multiple modes in humanitarian logistics

In this section, we analyse the reviewed studies in detail, present the findings of practitioner studies and report the results of the database search with specific keywords.

3.1 Academic studies

Forty of the 362 studies cover issues related to evacuation, while 49 address the distribution of relief supplies. Other main research topics include facility location, relief item prepositioning, resource allocation and risk assessment. Evacuation and relief item distribution may be considered as subtopics of transportation. Figure 2 shows a categorization summary of these 89 (i.e. 89 = 40 + 49) transportation-related articles, which reveals that only 13 studies can be considered to address multimodal transportation and seven of these also include the transhipment point between multiple transportation modes.

Classification of the papers related to evacuation and distribution

Intermodal transportation occurs when a transhipment point enables mode changes of the freight being carried in a transportation unit without any handling of the relief supplies. We made detailed investigations of 13 papers with multimodal features, which are summarized in Table 2 . Two of the papers studied transportation with a multimodal feature for the purposes of evacuation. The rest focused on relief supplies distribution. The third column in Table 2 shows that most used integer programming, while stochastic programming and linear programming were also utilized. None of these studies mention the concept of intermodality; however, Hu [ 15 ], Özdamar et al. [ 17 ] and Abdelgawad and Abdulhai [ 10 ] supported the usage of a transportation unit. Hu [ 15 ] and Özdamar et al. [ 17 ] constructed their models such that mode change is possible on a single journey. Even though cost can be considered to be less important than speed in humanitarian logistics, the fifth column reveals that the most widely used objective function is cost minimization (in nine of 13 articles). Besides minimizing cost, increasing service quality is addressed by using several objective functions such as minimizing delivery time, expected casualties, unmet demand for evacuees, service delay and maximizing survival rate, delivery and credibility. The seventh and eighth columns in Table 2 show that road−rail (in seven of 13 articles) and road−air (in six of 13 articles) are the most common transportation mode combinations. We also analysed the disaster types considered, however we found no specific relationship between disaster type and the modes used. On the other hand, of the articles that specify disaster type, earthquake seems to be the most studied type when multimodal transportation is utilized.

In addition to the studies captured from references lists, our database search using keywords yielded studies by Zhang et al. [ 23 ], Goel [ 24 ], di Gangi [ 25 ], Verma et al. [ 26 ], Abdelgawad and Abdulhai [ 27 ], Abdelgawad et al. [ 28 ] and Miller-Hooks et al. [ 29 ]. Zhang et al. [ 23 ] investigated the role of intermodal transportation in humanitarian supply chains mainly through interviews and surveys of relief organizations, non-profit organizations and government agencies. These authors assessed the utilization of different modes in humanitarian activities and identified ways to make intermodal transportation more attractive to relief organizations. Goel [ 24 ] studied the visibility of rail and road transportation systems that offer shipment and route choices to adjust transportation plans as situations change when supplies are in transit to minimize the total transportation and stock out costs. Di Gangi [ 25 ] developed a dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) model to study demand, supply and loading models in order to determine the quantitative indicators of exposed risk in a multimodal transport network that introduces bimodal arcs in a specified road. To minimize shipment costs and exposure risks, Verma et al. [ 26 ] used a tabu search algorithm in proposing a bi-objective optimization model for scheduling rail−truck intermodal shipments transporting hazardous materials. To minimize travel costs, Abdelgawad and Abdulhai [ 10 ] studied the scheduling and routing of transit vehicles and subways during emergency evacuation. Abdelgawad et al. [ 28 ] proposed a multi-objective model for minimizing in-vehicle travel time, at-origin waiting time and fleet costs in transit evacuations, based on a multi-depot time-constrained pick-up and delivery vehicle routing problem (VRP) framework. Miller-Hooks et al. [ 29 ] measured the performance of intermodal freight transportation to maximize network resilience and optimally allocate the budget between preparedness and recovery activities. The authors considered cost parameters and proposed a two-stage stochastic programming model using rail and road modes.

Tables  3 and 4 combine the reference lists and keyword searches to illustrate the relationships among transportation modes, disaster phases and disaster types. The disaster phases are listed as column headings in Table 3 , and the transportation modes and mode combinations comprise the table rows. As seen in Table 3 , 70 of 95 articles consider only single modes and road stand out with 62 related studies, while air is considered as the single mode in only six studies. Rail is used as a single mode in only one paper with respect to mitigation, as it is a relatively slow transportation type. The remaining 25 articles mention more than one mode. Mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery phases are studied in 3, 7, 22 and 3 of the articles, respectively. Additionally, air is combined with road and sea, while rail is studied only with road. Road is the most widely used transportation mode, especially in the preparedness and response phases.

Most of the 95 articles discuss models for the response phase, and very few combine mitigation/preparedness/response. Three of 95 papers did not mention a specific disaster type. Table 3 also reveals that of the 77 articles addressing road as the transportation mode, many consider the response phase since transportation operations usually take place during this phase. The second most commonly used transportation mode is air, which was studied with respect to the response phase in 12 papers. This is expected due to the importance of speed in response. Rail and sea modes were studied only with respect to the mitigation and response phases.

Table 4 categorizes 95 articles according to the combinations of transportation modes used for different disaster types. As in Table 3 , the rows indicate the transportation modes and the columns the disaster types. The categorizations follow the definitions used in the EM-DAT Annual Disaster Statistical Review [ 30 ]. The first column indicates studies that either do not distinguish between disaster types or mention more than one type of disaster. Among those focusing on a particular disaster type, earthquakes (categorized as geological in EM-DAT) have attracted the most attention. On the other hand, 24 of the papers do not mention disaster type. As depicted in Table 4 , road is the most widely used transportation mode—as a single mode—of all disaster types, whereas rail and sea are used the least. When more than one mode is considered, those with road is usually preferred as well. With seven articles, the most widely studied transportation mode combination is road-air. Three of these seven articles involve earthquake as the disaster type. Moreover, the lack of studies on transportation mode combinations such as road−sea and air−rail is a clear indication that more work is needed in this field.

3.2 State of practice

We reviewed the disaster archives of 12 international and three national (Turkish) organizations in relation to humanitarian relief activities. These international and national organizations are listed in Table 5 .

Unfortunately, we could find no information relating to transportation and transportation modes in many of these archives. In some (European Commission Humanitarian Office) ECHO reports, references were made to the availability of transportation modes for different operations, but there was no mention of the volumes of freight transported [ 32 ]. Logistics Clusters, activated by the World Food Programme (WFP) [ 40 ], is a mechanism that enables humanitarian organizations to work together to share scarce logistics resources during missions. The Logistics Clusters website [ 41 ] has a good archive containing 11 types of documents. We found more than 50 documents by searching ‘transportation mode’ as a keyword on the webpage. These documents have no standard format, so they provide different details regarding transportation processes. Some provide information about the volume of freight transported via different modes for the subject operation in a specified time interval. Others provide only percentages of the usage of modes, while a few provide detailed information via ‘Cargo Moving Requests’ [ 41 ]. Reports were available with respect to wars in Darfur, Congo, Somalia and Sudan; floods in Mozambique and Haiti; a typhoon in the Philippines and an earthquake in Pakistan. We could calculate mode changes with respect to disaster timelines by combining situation reports for the Pakistan earthquake operations. Figure 3 depicts the air and ground (i.e. road or rail) transportation mode usage following the Pakistan earthquake from 22 December 2005 to 11 January 2006. We can infer from Fig.  3 that air mode usage was greater than ground mode shortly after the earthquake. As time passed, air mode usage decreased while ground mode usage increased. While this was a reasonable assumption, due to the importance of speed in the early stages of disaster response, finding evidence for this claim was only possible after synthesizing several situation reports.

Percentage of the relief supplies transported by air or ground in Pakistan earthquake

By combining several logistics clusters and WFP situation reports, we confirmed the use of multimodal transportation after the typhoon in the Philippines (8 November 2013) and the flood in Haiti (12 September 2008). We can see in Fig.  4a and b respectively that different locations and disaster types require the use of different transportation modes, thus resulting in different multimodal transportation percentages, ranging from 1.4% to 7.9%.

Percentage of the freight (metric ton) transported by different transportation modes

A country-specific example can be drawn from the Turkish disaster archives. The main governmental humanitarian organization in Turkey, the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (DEMP) [ 42 ], provides relief aid following any disaster or emergency situation. Disaster statistics provide the number of deaths and the number of injured and affected people for each region, each city and each year according to disaster type. Disaster reports are not publicly available for each disaster. Information about relief aid transportation for the city of Van (a national mission) and Somalia (an international mission) is given in the disaster reports. For the Van earthquake, relief aid was transported by planes from closer supply points and by trains from supplier points farther away. In total, 40,000 mt of freight were transported by 19 planes and ten ships to Somalia [ 42 ].

The largest nongovernmental humanitarian organization in Turkey, the Turkish Red Crescent Society (a member of IFRC), also provides emergency relief to beneficiaries following disasters [ 43 ]. On their webpage, there are several reports on missions for Gaza, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, West Africa, Syria and the Van earthquake, regarding the provision of supplies as well as costs and transportation mode. Some of these details are given in Table 6 .

As seen in the fourth and fifth columns of Table 6 , data related to cost and mode type are not available in some reports. For example, while details about the type of relief items and dispatch dates can be found in the Van earthquake reports, only the number of trailers and planes and the delivered item types are provided [ 43 ]. In addition, there is a ‘Turkish Disaster Data Bank’, which can be reached via DEMP’s web page [ 44 ], but unfortunately, this database does not provide any transportation details of past disasters.

4 Discussion

4.1 analysis of findings in literature and practice review.

Based on our examination of academic and practitioner studies, we can make several observations. We found that 145 of the 369 academic articles related to humanitarian logistics addressed topics such as evacuation, relief supplies distribution, resource allocation, facility location and inventory. Very few of these 145 articles (e.g. Özdamar et al. [ 17 ], Abdelgawad and Abdulhai [ 10 ], Hu [ 15 ]) addressed the concept of the usage of a transportation unit and making changes in transportation modes. Among those mentioning the transportation modes used, 70 studies used a single transportation mode, 20 used more than one mode and six addressed the usage of all modes. This finding confirms that intermodality and the transportation unit concept is not being studied extensively in humanitarian logistics. Based on the literature review, few articles discussed the utilization of rail, sea, or air modes; most focused on road. The most studied transportation mode is road (by trucks), with air (by helicopters) coming second.

Based on the transportation mode/disaster-phase combination matrix, we know that most articles addressed the response phase, and the preparedness/response phase combination coming second. Although each phase has unique characteristics that might be suitable for different transportation modes, we were not able to deduce a correlation between a single transportation mode and different disaster phases. Road transportation seems to cover most of the disaster operations regardless of the disaster phase.

Based on the transportation mode/disaster-type combination matrix the majority of the models focus on earthquake response. The categorizations given in Table 4 , regarding the number of people affected by natural disasters, was retrieved from the EM-DAT database [ 30 ]. Fig.  5 displays the percentages of people affected between the years 1990 and 2014. Since transportation activities play an important role in all types of disasters, we might expect academic studies to reflect real-life needs. However, despite hydrological disasters seeming to have impacted more people, earthquakes and man-made disasters are the two most studied types of disasters in academic research. Although each disaster type has unique characteristics that might only be suitable for specific transportation modes, we were not able to deduce a correlation between a single transportation mode and a different disaster types. Road transportation seems to cover most of the disaster operations regardless of the disaster type.

Percentage of the number of affected people from natural disasters

Practitioner studies have produced reports relating to disaster types, dates and locations and the number of people affected, injured and killed. Rarely do they provide data about the type and quantity of relief items transported. The transportation modes utilized do not appear in most of the reports, although this subject might enlighten academic researchers on the real-world challenges and implications. International NGOs, logistics clusters and other coordinating platforms should provide operational details such as transportation modes and transported amount by each transportation mode in their mission reports.

4.2 Implications for practice

Transhipment points enable mode changes of the freight being carried in a transportation unit. Various types of containers can be used as transportation units, but to qualify as intermodal transportation, they must be handled as a single unit of equipment throughout the trip. Compared to bulk transportation, containers offer several benefits, including less product packaging, higher efficiency and less damage en route . Container dimensions have been standardized over the years, and sea transport primarily utilizes containers on ships [ 45 ]. However, there is no standardized container type designed specifically for humanitarian logistics. Nevertheless, a promising intermodal transportation unit (ITU) design was funded under EU 7 th Framework Programme (Tellibox [ 46 ]) for commercial setting combined transportation (i.e. road, rail, and sea). For smaller ITUs that are suitable for all transportation modes, AKE prefixed loading units [ 47 ] determined by International Air Transport Association (IATA) can be used.

The use of intermodal transportation is advantageous if there is more than one available transportation mode and there are associated cost benefits, i.e. if long distances are being covered in the whole transportation network. Zhang et al. [ 23 ] found distance to be the most important factor in making transportation mode choices. The existence of many hubs (i.e. referred as stops in Zhang et al. [ 23 ]) is also important for creating more alternatives; however, when combined with a large network, complexity also increases significantly. Intermodal transportation requires the presence of qualified employees (i.e. drayage, terminal, network, and intermodal operators (Macharis and Bontekoning [ 48 ])) at the hub locations and the proper synchronization of schedules for inbound and outbound transportation, which also increases complexity. For instance, dwell times at hub locations may be very high due to unexpected vehicle delays. Similarly, roads might collapse during the response phase, thus requiring an immediate change of moving vehicle routes. For this reason, the availability of each mode, the locations of vehicles and the locations of available containers must be monitored and updated frequently (Giannopoulos [ 49 ]). To achieve the desired advantages over multimodal or unimodal transportation, a properly working decision support system is essential for the effective management of the intermodal transportation of relief supplies.

Not all the disasters destroy the regions of the disaster area. When relief supplies are sufficient and are positioned nearby in advance of the disaster, then intermodal transportation is not necessary for nearby areas. On the other hand, Zhang et al. [ 23 ] point out that large organizations covering greater geographical areas are utilizing intermodal transportation more frequently. Zhang et al. [ 23 ] also state that large organizations usually preposition supplies in different warehouses around the world, thus requiring long distance intermodal transportation. While fires, contagious diseases, and oil spills do not require special effort to transport relief items from afar, natural disasters usually do. Although intermodal transportation cannot be efficiently used for all disaster types, it provides a vital alternative to reach beneficiaries during most disaster responses.

4.3 Directions for future research

By skimming 362 academic papers, we identified only 13 multimodal studies. Later, searching related keywords led us to seven more studies published after 2009. So, while the advantages of multiple mode utilization are attracting more attention, especially since the year 2000, containerization and hub usage have not yet been studied thoroughly in humanitarian logistics. Zhang et al. [ 23 ] reported that, while transporting items, relief agencies benefit from a change in transportation mode 40% of the time. That the ratio of academic studies is well below this value indicates that practitioners have not received enough support from academic research in this area. Pedraza-Martinez and Van Wassenhove [ 50 ] provide a three-step closed loop to build trust between practitioners and academics working on humanitarian operations. Three steps are listed as (1) working with practitioners on problems, then (2) validating results with real data, and finally (3) helping practitioners to implement research results in practice. This closed loop might be useful in filling the gap between academics and practitioners for future work.

NGOs consider several factors such as cost, time, type and amount of supplies and availability of roads and routes. A decision support system and routine updates to these data might help to overcome coordination challenges in intermodal transportation. Giannopoulos [ 49 ] also highlight the need for such intelligent transport systems for intermodal operations by reviewing the EU funded research. Macharis et al. [ 51 ] provide a good example of such decision support systems for intermodal transport on a commercial setting. Future studies might focus on developing decision support systems for intermodal transportation in humanitarian settings.

Moreover, we can conclude from a comparison of Fig.  5 and Table 4 that academic research does not presently reflect practitioner needs. Different disasters require different response plans in terms of road availabilities, duration and predictability. As the main purpose of all these studies is to better help beneficiaries, we can claim here that there is a need for more academic research on transportation with respect to hydrological- and meteorological-type disasters.

Different disaster types might result in blocked usage of various transportation modes. In earthquakes, ground transportation might be unavailable. The lack of research on transportation mode combinations, such as road−sea and air−rail might shed light to future work in this field. In the future, transportation mode combinations can be assessed in terms of their ‘link-and-node criticalities’ [ 52 ] for an undisrupted delivery of relief items. Some of the papers we reviewed that were related to intermodal freight transportation introduced models to facilitate mode changes under some circumstances; however, they did not address coordination challenges. Future studies should address the inherent coordination challenges of intermodal transportation.

5 Conclusions

In this study, we investigated the usage of intermodal freight transportation in humanitarian logistics. We reviewed the transportation modes addressed in the humanitarian logistics literature and relate these to their disaster types and phases. Studies ranging from emergency management to disaster relief distribution were considered and those more related to transportation were analysed in detail. We searched for evidence of any mode changes and transportation unit usage in the academic research literature. We can conclude that intermodality and the transportation unit concept is not being studied extensively in humanitarian logistics. In addition, we examined relief agencies’ web sites and reports and recorded all information relevant to transportation. Consequently, we captured 20 academic studies and three practical examples of different mode usages in humanitarian logistics.

We noted a decreasing usage ratio in the response phase of the slower modes (e.g. sea, rail) as time has passed in one of the practitioner reports that we reviewed. Nevertheless, we were not able to find a strong relationship between a single transportation mode based on neither different disaster-types nor -phases. Road transportation seems to cover most of the disaster operations regardless of the disaster type or disaster phase. This result might stem from the fact that road transportation does not require special infrastructure investments.

Intermodal transportation can be a solution when transportation resources are scarce during the immediate aftermath of a disaster. The quantity of demand is usually high and required lead time is almost zero. Alternative transportation modes such as rail can carry relief supplies in higher amounts on a single trip as a cure for fleet size constraints of road transportation in the short term. Rail can cover the longer distance and final miles can be covered using tours with trucks on road.

We believe that international aid requires the availability of intermodal transportation more than national and local aid operations. This is true especially for large organizations such as international NGOs, UN organizations, ECHO, and USAID. These organizations preposition their relief supplies around the world at certain locations and ship these supplies from their warehouses to the disaster area when needed. These shipments are usually long distance and require intermodal transportation.

Recordkeeping by humanitarian logisticians is a challenge yet to be overcome. Most agencies do not share the volume of goods transported, and even if they do, mode changes are not explicitly mentioned. On the other hand, there is increasing attention to this area in academic research. As multimodality has been the subject of increasing research attention in recent years and transportation unit usage has been considered in a few recent studies, we anticipate that intermodal transportation will garner greater research attention and increased utilization in coming years. We hope this study will serve as a basis for promoting future research on intermodal freight transportation in humanitarian logistics.

Altay N, Green WG III (2006) OR/MS research in disaster operations management. Eur J Oper Res 175(1):475–493

Article   MATH   Google Scholar  

Van Wassenhove LN (2006) Humanitarian aid logistics: supply chain management in high gear. J Oper Res Soc 57(5):475–489

United Nations (2004) Economic and social commission for Asia and the Pacific. Manual on modernization of inland water transport for integration within a multimodal transport system. United Nations, New York

Google Scholar  

Galindo G, Batta R (2013) Review of recent developments in OR/MS research in disaster operations management. Eur J Oper Res 230(2):201–211

Article   Google Scholar  

Caunhye AM, Nie X, Pokharel S (2012) Optimization models in emergency logistics: a literature review. Socio Econ Plan Sci 46(1):4–13

Natarajarathinam M, Capar I, Narayanan A (2009) Managing supply chains in times of crisis: a review of literature and insights. Int J Phys Distrib 39(7):535–573

Apte A (2010) Humanitarian logistics: a new field of research and action . Now Publishers Inc

Anaya-Arenas AM, Renaud J, Ruiz A (2014) Relief distribution networks: a systematic review. Ann Oper Res 223(1):53–79

Article   MathSciNet   MATH   Google Scholar  

de la Torre LE, Dolinskaya IS, Smilowitz KR (2012) Disaster relief routing: integrating research and practice. Socio Econ Plan Sci 46(1):88–97

Abdelgawad H, Abdulhai B (2009) Emergency evacuation planning as a network design problem: a critical review. Transp Lett 1(1):41–58

Adıvar B, Mert A (2010) International disaster relief planning with fuzzy credibility. Fuzzy Optim Decis Making 9(4):413–433

Barbarosoğlu G, Arda Y (2004) A two-stage stochastic programming framework for transportation planning in disaster response. J Oper Res Soc 55(1):43–53

Clark A, Culkin B (2013) A network transshipment model for planning humanitarian relief operations after a natural disaster. In: Vitariano B et al. (ed) Decision aid models for disaster management and emergencies. Atlantis Press, pp 233–257

Haghani A, Oh SC (1996) Formulation and solution of a multi-commodity, multi-modal network flow model for disaster relief operations. Transp Res A Policy 30(3):231–250

Hu Z (2011) A container multimodal transportation scheduling approach based on immune affinity model for emergency relief. Expert Syst Appl 38(3):2632–2639

Article   MathSciNet   Google Scholar  

Oh A, Haghani S (1997) Testing and evaluation of a multi‐commodity multi‐modal network flow model for disaster relief management. J Adv Transp 31(3):249–282

Özdamar L, Ekinci E, Küçükyazici B (2004) Emergency logistics planning in natural disasters. Ann Oper Res 129(1-4):217–245

Salmerón J, Apte A (2010) Stochastic optimization for natural disaster asset prepositioning. Prod Oper Manag 19(5):561–574

Tean ES (2006) Optimized positioning of pre-disaster relief force and assets. Master’s thesis, Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School

Vitoriano B, Ortuno T, Tirado G (2009) HADS, a goal programming‐based humanitarian aid distribution system. J Multi-Criteria Decis Anal 16(1‐2):55–64

Yi W, Kumar A (2007) Ant colony optimization for disaster relief operations. Transp Res E Logist 43(6):660–672

Zhu J, Huang J, Liu D, Han J (2008). Resources allocation problem for local reserve depots in disaster management based on scenario analysis. In The 7th International symposium on operations research and its applications. Lijiang, China, pp 395–407

Zhang H, Strawderman L, Ekşioğlu B (2011) The role of intermodal transportation in humanitarian supply chains. J Emerg Manag 9(1):25–36

Goel A (2010) The value of in-transit visibility for supply chains with multiple modes of transport. Int J Log Res Appl 13(6):475–492

di Gangi M (2011) Modeling evacuation of a transport system: application of a multimodal mesoscopic dynamic traffic assignment model. IEEE T Intell Transp 12(4):1157–1166

Verma M, Verter V, Zufferey N (2012) A bi-objective model for planning and managing rail-truck intermodal transportation of hazardous materials. Transp Res E Logist 48(1):132–149

Abdelgawad H, Abdulhai B (2012) Large-scale evacuation using subway and bus transit: approach and application in City of Toronto. J Transp Eng 138:1215–1232

Abdelgawad H, Abdulhai B, Wahba M (2010) Multiobjective optimization for multimodal evacuation. Transp Res Rec: J Transp Res B 2196(1):21–33

Miller-Hooks E, Zhang X, Faturechi R (2012) Measuring and maximizing resilience of freight transportation networks. Comput Oper Res 39(7):1633–1643

EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database (2015) http://www.emdat.be . Accessed 17 March 2016

UNOPS United Nations Office for Project Services (2016) https://www.unops.org . Accessed 17 March 2016

ECHO European Community Humanitarian Office (2016) http://ec.europa.eu/echo . Accessed 17 March 2016

FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency (2016) http://www.fema.gov . Accessed 17 March 2016

USAID United States Agency for International Development (2016) http://www.usaid.gov . Accessed 17 March 2016

UNICEF (2016) http://www.unicef.org . Accessed 17 March 2016

FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2016) Available: http://www.fao.org . Accessed 17 March 2016

IFRC International Federation of Red Cross and Red Descent Societies (2016) https://www.ifrc.org . Accessed 17 March 2016

CARE Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (2016) http://www.care.org . Accessed 17 March 2016

Reliefweb (2016) http://reliefweb.int . Accessed 17 March 2016

WFP World Food Programme (2016) http://www.wfp.org . Accessed 17 March 2016

Logistics Cluster (2016) http://www.logcluster.org . Accessed 17 March 2016

DEMP Republic of Turkey Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (2016)

Kızılay (2016) http://www.afad.gov.tr/Raporlar . Accessed 17 March 2016

TABB Turkish Disaster Information Bank https://tabb.afad.gov.tr . Accessed 17 March 2016

Vis IF, De Koster R (2003) Transshipment of containers at a container terminal: an overview. Eur J Oper Res 147(1):1–16

Tellibox: Intelligent MegaSwapBoxes for Advanced Intermodal Freight Transport (2011) http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/56093_en.html Accessed 4 Dec 2016

ULD Container Types (2016) https://www.searates.com/reference/uld/ . Accessed 4 Dec 2016

Macharis C, Bontekoning YM (2004) Opportunities for OR in intermodal freight transport research: a review. Eur J Oper Res 153(2):400–416

Giannopoulos GA (2009) Towards a European ITS for freight transport and logistics: results of current EU funded research and prospects for the future. Eur Transp Res Rev 1(4):147–161

Pedraza-Martinez AJ, Van Wassenhove LN (2016) Empirically grounded research in humanitarian operations management: the way forward. J Oper Manag 45:1–10

Macharis C, Caris A, Jourquin B, Pekin E (2011) A decision support framework for intermodal transport policy. Eur Transp Res Rev 3(4):167–178

Mitsakis E, Papanikolaou A, Ayfadopoulou G, Salanova J, Doll C, Giannopoulos GA, Zerefos C (2014) An integrated framework for linking climate change impacts to emergency adaptation strategies for transport networks. Eur Transp Res Rev 6(2):103–111

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) under Grant 113M493.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Industrial Engineering, Çankaya University, Yukarıyurtçu Mahallesi, Mimar Sinan Cad. No: 4, 06790, Etimesgut, Ankara, Turkey

Mustafa Alp Ertem & Melike İşbilir

Tüdemsaş Production Planning Department, Kadiburhanettin Mahallesi Fabrika Cad. No: 12, 58059, Sivas, Turkey

Ayşenur Şahin Arslan

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mustafa Alp Ertem .

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Ertem, M.A., İşbilir, M. & Şahin Arslan, A. Review of intermodal freight transportation in humanitarian logistics. Eur. Transp. Res. Rev. 9 , 10 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12544-017-0226-z

Download citation

Received : 19 March 2016

Accepted : 20 January 2017

Published : 02 February 2017

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s12544-017-0226-z

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Humanitarian logistics
• OR in disaster relief
• Literature review
• Freight transportation

Intermodal Transportation: Overview Research Paper

Executive summary, introduction, history and contribution of intermodal transport to the economy, main challenges of intermodal transport, effective intermodal transport systems, recommendation to intermodal transport sector.

Transportation plays an integral role in any given economy. The development of any country’s economy and eventual poverty reduction depends highly on its transportation infrastructure. Technological advance has played a greater role in ensuring that both communication and transportation systems are streamlined in order to cope with the globalization demands. Governments and indeed privately held companies have had strategies focusing on how to reduce transport challenges which include traffic congestion, environmental effects, damage reduction and of course the cost of transportation. Industrialization has also left its impact and challenges on the current global transportation system. In an advanced technological era that we are living in, modes of transportation are also changing and with it the Intermodal transportation.

Intermodal transport is the transportation of cargo or goods in containers using various modes of transportation including railway, road, air and by sea without any physical handling of the cargo itself while changing modes of transportation. This method is recommended for effective transportation since it ensures security, reduces risk in goods damages, and enhances portability. Intermodal transportation also improves the speed of transportation since goods are not repacked during change of means of transport. Intermodal transportation dates back to 1780s when earliest containers were used at the Bridgewater canal in England for coal shipping. The loose boxes as known then were then used in railway and road transportation mostly the horse drawn roads (Rushton and Croucher, 2004).

Just as the mode of transportation has changed over the years whereby today we have advanced railways and airplanes, so has the Intermodal containers especially in size and material used in making them. In the 1830s wooden coal containers were used on railways. As time went by, iron containers were invented and were used to transport coal especially by ship. During the First World War, wooden containers transported people and luggage as an intermediary between railways and shipping through port Harwich. The 19 th century saw the introduction of covered containers which were used to transport mostly furniture only now between road and railway. Containers known as lift vans came handy in the USA in the beginning of 19 th century.

However, lack of standards reduced the value of Intermodal container transportation and this brought about standardization. Railway Clearing House was the first standardization adopted in the 1920s in the UK. Albeit small containers compared to the modern standards, the standardization allowed corporate and individual owned cargo to be carried on standard Intermodal containers. This United Kingdom standardization normally of wooden containers lacked internal strength to stack and was therefore not used outside the UK. The containers were however useful in the London, Midland and Scottish Railway which offered Intermodal road-railways services as a product known as “door to door”. (Sidney, 1846)

World War II saw the introduction of pallets. During this time, the US military transported cargo on pallets which enabled fast transfer from warehouses, ships, trains and aircraft. Within that kind of Intermodal transportation, fewer employees were needed and loading intervals greatly reduced. Before World War II in 1936, trailers were used as containers by railway in an arrangement known as piggyback. This kind of an arrangement was mainly used by the Chicago Great Western and Class 1 railroad. The Canadian Pacific Railway was the first North American Railway to introduce Piggyback transport in 1952 (Rushton and Croucher, 2004).

Standardization was still a challenge to the Intermodal transport system and in the United Kingdom; companies like Pickfords continued to offer services using RCH containers. The containers would then be loaded on trucks using a crane. In Mid 19 th Century, United States using its department of defense introduced standardization system for containers for the military. The rectangular containers were then used by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for two years as a standard measure worldwide depending of course on the different transportation means. The 2.4m by 2.4m square containers were known as ISO containers and were in use from 1968 to 1970. Modernization, advance in technology and professionalism continued to improve container standards. Pre-ISO and all the other wooden made containers were quickly made obsolete by larger ISO standard containers which went up to forty foot as container standards improved (Rushton and Croucher, 2004).

The US saw a steady increase of containers in the 1960s which tripped in the period later part of 1980s and early 2000. Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported a decrease of trailers and containers from 3.1 million to 9.3 million. There was however left a huge amount of Intermodal cargo investment. The period between 1984 to now has witnessed a common mode of Intermodal shipping known as Double-Stack up to 70% which is mainly used in rail transport. Using this mode of transport, the US transports up to one million containers annually. Available in various sizes, the double stack Intermodal transportation vehicle has reduced damage during transportation, and by its unique design security is ensured since their doors remain closed during transit. The double stack rail transport has however not been useful in Europe due to the limiting loading gauge, it was only with the construction of Rotterdam railway in German in 2007 and low tunnels in New Zealand that has made the two European countries benefit both economically and in the industrial sectors (Rushton and Croucher, 2004).

The standardization system has also with time improved and has since the 1960s seen increase in container sizes. Larger and larger sizes have been manufactured and ISO approved. Within a fifty year period when ISO standard was 2.4m by 2.4m a great size improvement has been witnessed and now we have ISO containers that are 2438mm by 2438mm. This has of course made transport of cargo not only faster but more secure and not mention cheaper. Again the containers are not only made of wood whose wear and tear rate is very high but made of steel. This has reduced baggage and enhanced portability since steel made containers can be placed on to of another. The double stacks have also made it. Depending on the mode of transportation, the stacks can be packed to more than six units high. Moreover, the double stack containers can be carried by almost all modes of transportation be it aircraft rail or ship. However, and again, the loading gauge limitation in Europe still restricts this mode of Intermodal transportation especially in ancient railways with smaller loading gauge (Rushton and Croucher, 2004).

There is however exception to standardization rules on some standard container. There are open-top option for transporting large loads and others that due to overhead electrification cannot be stacked too high, and also others for example tanktainer which are basically are fitted with tank within a container frame for transporting liquids. There are also containers for perishables which are normally refrigerated and swap body basically made for rail-road transport that is movable from one truck to another without a crane. There are however in Europe non-standard containers. For example Euro-pallet which is slightly larger than the ISO standard. The non-standard containers are mostly for road transportation for internal domestic use including coal carriers, bin carriers for carrying dirt from homes to dumping sites. (Sidney, 1846)

Intermodality should therefore be considered when choosing the mode of transport and the cargo on board. There is Intermodal containers that are more suitable for one mode of transportation to another. Transportation in North America for example would require an Intermodal container that is railway compliant. Container well cars are the most used Intermodal containers. The recent made containers have depressions which allow for more goods to be stacked. In Australia, double stacking is used and in some parts of UK mostly single stacked containers are used. Some of the Intermodal containers used include transtainers for sea vessels, Gantry cranes for road and rail, and grappler lift also for road purposes. Truck trailers because of their size are commonly used where in countries where loading gauge is large. However depending on the size of freight and the mode of transportation, truck trailers are designed accordingly (Earth Metrics and Korve Engineerning, 1989).

RoadRailer Corporation has developed a newer method of trailers. This method saves on cost of mode of transportation since it does not require more cars. As a matter of fact it just requires for assembling of railway wheels between the trailers and as a result that forms one large railway car. There are also other containers for the sea known as container ships. These are custom made varying in sizes and capacities. The largest container registered in 2005 had a capacity of 8,000 Twenty-foot equivalents units (TEU). However, sea routes are considered when deciding which container ships to use since there are limitations. For example Panamax is the largest container ship that can pass via Panama Canal; it has a size of 5,000 TEU. Again, the size of the container requires special terminal capacity therefore the size and also the availability of the container dictates the route the vessel is going to take. Container ships size is likely to increase in the future as has been witnessed since the history of Intermodal transportation. (Sidney, 1846)

It is important to note however, that the size of the container ship increases also the cost of transportation depending of course with the cost of oil since the containers take a lot of transportation space. Again they the containers can become cumbersome if there is no prior arrangement of the mode of transportation. Some make of containers may not be compatible for all anticipated mode of transport. Again containerization poses a big problem to packaging of finished goods which is essential for marketing purposes. This is because the packaging design must be the one dictated by the method of transportation which of course includes the containers used.

Apart from the demerits mostly affecting the containerization itself and the mode of transportation, there are other factors to consider if one is to claim success in the development of Intermodal transportation. Nations have had to review their ports’ rules and sensitize their ports authority against smuggling of illegal substances. Containerization has proved to be a major factor that has contributed to the expansion of black market. False branding of containers has allowed illegal materials to be transported from one country to the other. The US has been particularly on the alert when dealing with terrorism since it believes those terrorist use containers to transport either the terrorists themselves or their gadgets. (Earth Metrics and Korve Engineerning, 1989)

Other challenges that are experienced in Intermodal transportation are that sometimes containers that have transported cargo from one place are expected to carry goods back. However this is not usually possible since the size and the timings of return cargo might be different. As a result, there is cost incurred in transporting empty containers. Again, lost of containers especially in the sea posses a great pollution depending of course on what has fallen off the ship and also shipping hazards.

However, considering the rate at which technology is moving presently, we can rest assured that soon there will be less and less Intermodal transportation going on since there will be lesser cargo to carry. A good example is the reduction of the amount of mail transportation. Just a decade ago there was so much mail both locally and internationally that there were specific containers just for mails and courier but not any more! With the discovery of internet, transportation of mail has significantly reduced. Moreover, as a result of improved mode of transportation infrastructure, freight can be transported much easier and frequently as opposed to say a decade ago there is obviously no comparison of ancient railways and railcars to today’s electrified rails and railcars. Very large container ships also require specialized deepwater terminals. Available container fleet, route constraints, and terminal capacity plays a large role in shaping global container shipment logistics.

American Shipper (2007): Journal of International Logistics; Web.

Containerization International (2005): The online business news and information Service from Containerization International.

David J. (1992). Piggyback and Containers- A History of Rail Intermodal on America’s Steel Highway: Golden West Books, San Marino; CA

Earth Metrics and Korve Engineerning (1989) Intermodal Interface Demonstration Project, Port Of Oakland, Oakland, California,

Fairplay International Shipping Weekly (2006): Lloyd’s Register – Fairplay is the only Company able to provide complete details of the world’s fleet of over 91,000 vessels; Web.

Florida Shipper (2007): The Journal of Commerce Florida Shipper offers export sailing Schedules from Florida ports to international destinations; Web.

Rushton, A. and Croucher, P (2004) the Handbook of Logistics and Distribution Kogan, London

Sidney, S (1846). Gauge Evidence-The History and Prospects of the Railway System. Edmonds, London, UK

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2022, March 2). Intermodal Transportation: Overview. https://ivypanda.com/essays/intermodal-transportation-overview/

"Intermodal Transportation: Overview." IvyPanda , 2 Mar. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/intermodal-transportation-overview/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'Intermodal Transportation: Overview'. 2 March.

IvyPanda . 2022. "Intermodal Transportation: Overview." March 2, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/intermodal-transportation-overview/.

1. IvyPanda . "Intermodal Transportation: Overview." March 2, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/intermodal-transportation-overview/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Intermodal Transportation: Overview." March 2, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/intermodal-transportation-overview/.

• Intermodal Transport: Comparison Between USA and Europe
• The Advantages of Intermodal Transportation in the Global Economy
• Container Tracking Devices for Intermodal Transport of Goods
• Intermodal Transport and Drayage Operations
• Containerization of Intermodal Transport Service
• Intermodal Transportation in the European Union and the United States
• The Challenges for Intermodal Transportation in the 21st Century
• Intermodal Transportation Impacts on Environment
• Government Intervention in Intermodal Transportation
• Regulation and Its Impact on Intermodal Transportation
• Material Requirement Planning System Assignment
• Transportation in Logistics and Supply Chain Management
• Improving Demand Forecasting Models: Recommendations
• Impact, Challenges, and Post-Coronavirus Outlook for Marketing Channels
• Medical Masks Shortage in the US Market

International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing

FAIM 2023: Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing: Establishing Bridges for More Sustainable Manufacturing Systems pp 898–908 Cite as

Sustainable Transport: A Systematic Literature Review

• João Reis   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8504-0065 13 , 14 ,
• Joana Costa   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7514-9836 15 ,
• Pedro Marques   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8429-0249 13 , 14 ,
• Francisco Silva Pinto   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2016-3603 13 , 14 &
• Ricardo J. G. Mateus   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3630-6426 13 , 14  
• Conference paper
• First Online: 24 August 2023

846 Accesses

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering ((LNME))

Sustainable transport research includes a range of real-life issues related to low-carbon/carbon-neutral mobility. To our knowledge, sustainable transport offers an interdisciplinary approach, where relevant solutions are developed, such as in the environmental, industrial and energy areas. As the research areas in transport are vast, in this paper we present the key concepts with the greatest potential for growth within the academic community. The disclosure of key concepts may enable researchers to justify their options in sustainable transport, deepen their knowledge and move forward with their research. To do so, this paper performs a systematic literature review using PRISMA statement. The research findings identified six dimensions and focused on electromobility, micromobility and intermodal transport, which have played a pivotal role in sustainable transport. The need to deepen knowledge on the aforementioned topics should be considered timely, as it can influence the mitigation of climate risk and can have positive implications in the operationalization of the dynamics of cities.

• sustainable transport
• carbon-neutral mobility
• systematic literature review
• electromobility
• micromobility

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution .

Buying options

• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Compact, lightweight edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Georgatzi, V.V., Stamboulis, Y., Vetsikas, A.: Examining the determinants of CO2 emissions caused by the transport sector: empirical evidence from 12 European countries. Econ. Anal. Policy 65 , 11–20 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eap.2019.11.003

Article   Google Scholar  

Zhao, X., Ke, Y., Zuo, J., Xiong, W., Wu, P.: Evaluation of sustainable transport research in 2000–2019. J. Clean. Prod. 256 , 120404 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120404

Stojanović, Đ, Ivetić, J., Veličković, M.: Assessment of international trade-related transport CO2 emissions—a logistics responsibility perspective. Sustainability 13 , 1138 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031138

Cristea, A., Hummels, D., Puzzello, L., Avetisyan, M.: Trade and the greenhouse gas emissions from international freight transport. J. Environ. Econ. Manag. 65 , 153–173 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2012.06.002

Feitelson, E.: Introducing environmental equity dimensions into the sustainable transport discourse: issues and pitfalls. Transp. Res. Part Transp. Environ. 7 , 99–118 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1016/S1361-9209(01)00013-X

Gössling, S., Schröder, M., Späth, P., Freytag, T.: Urban space distribution and sustainable transport. Transp. Rev. 36 , 659–679 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2016.1147101

Steg, L., Gifford, R.: Sustainable transportation and quality of life. J. Transp. Geogr. 13 , 59–69 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2004.11.003

Budd, L., Ison, S.: Responsible transport: a post-COVID agenda for transport policy and practice. Transp. Res. Interdiscip. Perspect. 6 , 100151 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2020.100151

Sikarwar, V.S., Reichert, A., Jeremias, M., Manovic, V.: COVID-19 pandemic and global carbon dioxide emissions: a first assessment. Sci. Total Environ. 794 , 148770 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148770

Zhang, X., Li, Z., Wang, J.: Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in china’s transportation sector. Case Stud. Therm. Eng. 26 , 101091 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csite.2021.101091

Tranfield, D., Denyer, D., Smart, P.: Towards a methodology for developing evidence-informed management knowledge by means of systematic review. Br. J. Manag. 14 , 207–222 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375

Torgerson, C. Systematic Reviews; Continuum: London; New York (2003). ISBN 978-0-8264-6580-1

Google Scholar  

Moher, D.: Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement. Ann. Intern. Med. 151 , 264 (2009). https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-151-4-200908180-00135

Harzing, A.-W., Alakangas, S.: Google Scholar, Scopus and the Web of Science: a longitudinal and cross-disciplinary comparison. Scientometrics 106 (2), 787–804 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1798-9

Reis, J., Santo, P., Melão, N.: Impact of artificial intelligence research on politics of the European union member states: the case study of Portugal. Sustainability 12 , 6708 (2020). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12176708

Reis, J.: Politics, power, and influence: defense industries in the post-cold war. Soc. Sci. 10 , 10 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10010010

Vaismoradi, M., Turunen, H., Bondas, T.: Content analysis and thematic analysis: implications for conducting a qualitative descriptive study: qualitative descriptive study. Nurs. Health Sci. 15 , 398–405 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1111/nhs.12048

Welsh, E.: Dealing with data: using NVivo in the qualitative data analysis process. Forum Qual. Sozialforschung/Forum Qual. Soc. Res. 3 (2) (2002). Using Technology in the Qualitative Research Process https://doi.org/10.17169/FQS-3.2.865

Nguyen, T.T., Brunner, H., Hirz, M.: Towards a holistic sustainability evaluation for transport alternatives. Eur. J. Sustain. Dev. 9 , 1 (2020). https://doi.org/10.14207/ejsd.2020.v9n4p1

Kijewska, K., Jedliński, M., Iwan, S.: Ecological utility of FQP projects in the stakeholders’ opinion in the light of empirical studies based on the example of the city of Szczecin. Sustain. Cities Soc. 74 , 103171 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2021.103171

Corazza, M., Emberger, G., Oszter, V., Pejdo, A., Shibayama, T.: COVID-19 containment measures and policies for sustainable transport: present changes and future directions. Ing. Ferrov. 76 , 669–697 (2021)

Pietrzak, K., Pietrzak, O., Montwiłł, A.: Light Freight Railway (LFR) as an innovative solution for sustainable urban freight transport. Sustain. Cities Soc. 66 , 102663 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102663

Kłos, M.J., Sierpiński, G.: Building a model of integration of urban sharing and public transport services. Sustainability 13 , 3086 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063086

Anastasiadou, K.: Sustainable mobility driven prioritization of new vehicle technologies, based on a new decision-aiding methodology. Sustainability 13 , 4760 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3390/su13094760

Marleau Donais, F., Abi-Zeid, I., Waygood, E.O.D., Lavoie, R.: A review of cost–benefit analysis and multicriteria decision analysis from the perspective of sustainable transport in project evaluation. EURO J. Decis. Process. 7 (3–4), 327–358 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40070-019-00098-1

Więckowski, M.: Will the consequences of COVID-19 trigger a redefining of the role of transport in the development of sustainable tourism? Sustainability 13 , 1887 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041887

Badassa, B.B., Sun, B., Qiao, L.: Sustainable transport infrastructure and economic returns: a bibliometric and visualization analysis. Sustainability 12 , 2033 (2020). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12052033

Pietrzak, O., Pietrzak, K.: The economic effects of electromobility in sustainable urban public transport. Energies 14 , 878 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3390/en14040878

Senne, C.M., Lima, J.P., Favaretto, F.: An index for the sustainability of integrated urban transport and logistics: the case study of São Paulo. Sustainability 13 , 12116 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3390/su132112116

Ibraeva, A., de Almeida Correia, G.H., Silva, C., Antunes, A.P.: Transit-oriented development: a review of research achievements and challenges. Transp. Res. Part Policy Pract. 132 , 110–130 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2019.10.018

Pietrzak, O., Pietrzak, K.: Cargo tram in freight handling in urban areas in Poland. Sustain. Cities Soc. 70 , 102902 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2021.102902

Profillidis, V., Botzoris, G., Galanis, A.: Environmental effects and externalities from the transport sector and sustainable transportation planning – a review authors. Int. J. Energy Econ. Policy 4 , 647–661 (2014)

Moradi, A., Vagnoni, E.: A multi-level perspective analysis of urban mobility system dynamics: what are the future transition pathways? Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change 126 , 231–243 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2017.09.002

Okyere, S., Yang, J.Q., Aning, K.S., Zhan, B.: Review of sustainable multimodal freight transportation system in African developing countries: evidence from Ghana. Int. J. Eng. Res. Afr. 41 , 155–174 (2019). https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/JERA.41.155

Bask, A., Rajahonka, M.: The role of environmental sustainability in the freight transport mode choice: a systematic literature review with focus on the EU. Int. J. Phys. Distrib. Logist. Manag. 47 , 560–602 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPDLM-03-2017-0127

Turoń, K., Kubik, A., Chen, F.: Electric shared mobility services during the pandemic: modeling aspects of transportation. Energies 14 , 2622 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3390/en14092622

Sagaris, L.: Lessons from 40 years of planning for cycle-inclusion: reflections from Santiago. Chile. Nat. Resour. Forum 39 , 64–81 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1111/1477-8947.12062

Abduljabbar, R.L., Liyanage, S., Dia, H.: The role of micro-mobility in shaping sustainable cities: a systematic literature review. Transp. Res. Part Transp. Environ. 92 , 102734 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2021.102734

Teixeira, J.F., Silva, C., Moura e Sá, F.: Empirical evidence on the impacts of bikesharing: a literature review. Transp. Rev. 41 , 329–351 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2020.1841328

Teles, F., Gomes Magri, R.T., Cooper Ordoñez, R.E., Anholon, R., Lacerda Costa, S., Santa-Eulalia, L.A.: Sustainability measurement of product-service systems: Brazilian case studies about electric carsharing. Int. J. Sustain. Dev. World Ecol. 25 , 722–729 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1080/13504509.2018.1488771

Velazquez, L., et al.: Sustainable transportation strategies for decoupling road vehicle transport and carbon dioxide emissions. Manag. Environ. Qual. Int. J. 26 , 373–388 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1108/MEQ-07-2014-0120

Maldonado Silveira Alonso Munhoz, P.A., et al.: Smart mobility: the main drivers for increasing the intelligence of urban mobility. Sustainability 12 , 10675 (2020). https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410675

Kumar, P., Singh, R.K., Paul, J., Sinha, O.: Analyzing challenges for sustainable supply chain of electric vehicle batteries using a hybrid approach of Delphi and best-worst method. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 175 , 105879 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.105879

Thaller, A., Posch, A., Dugan, A., Steininger, K.: How to design policy packages for sustainable transport: balancing disruptiveness and implementability. Transp. Res. Part Transp. Environ. 91 , 102714 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2021.102714

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Industrial Engineering and Management, Faculty of Engineering, Lusófona University, Campo Grande, 1749-024, Lisbon, Portugal

João Reis, Pedro Marques, Francisco Silva Pinto & Ricardo J. G. Mateus

EIGeS – Research Centre in Industrial Engineering, Management and Sustainability, Lusófona University, Lisbon, Portugal

Department of Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism, GOVCOPP, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

Joana Costa

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to João Reis .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

TEMA - Centre for Mechanical Technology and Automation, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Aveiro, Porto, Portugal

Francisco J. G. Silva

TEMA - Centre for Mechanical Technology and Automation, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

António B. Pereira

Department of Mechanical Engineering, ISEP – School of Engineering, Polytechnic of Porto, Porto, Portugal

Raul D. S. G. Campilho

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Cite this paper.

Reis, J., Costa, J., Marques, P., Pinto, F.S., Mateus, R.J.G. (2024). Sustainable Transport: A Systematic Literature Review. In: Silva, F.J.G., Pereira, A.B., Campilho, R.D.S.G. (eds) Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing: Establishing Bridges for More Sustainable Manufacturing Systems. FAIM 2023. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38241-3_98

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38241-3_98

Published : 24 August 2023

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-031-38240-6

Online ISBN : 978-3-031-38241-3

eBook Packages : Engineering Engineering (R0)

Share this paper

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

An official website of the United States government Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( Lock A locked padlock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Baltimore Bridge Collapse Update: Emergency Declaration Extension Issued by FMCSA

Francis scott key bridge news and updates.

At approximately 1:30 a.m. ET on March 26, 2024, a cargo ship leaving the Port of Baltimore in Baltimore, MD struck the (I-695) Francis Scott Key Bridge. This caused a collapse of the bridge. Please continue to check this page regularly for related updates affecting commercial motor vehicles, including traffic alerts and emergency declarations.

Emergency Declarations

• April 4, 2024: FMCSA-Extension Of Emergency Declaration Under 49 CFR § 390.25 No. 2024-002 (Maryland)  (expires May 8, 2024 -  See FAQ below for effect on CMV transportation.)
• March 26, 2024:  Maryland Executive Order 01.01.2024.09  (expires April 8, 2024) 

Transportation Routing for Commercial Motor Vehicles

The  Maryland Transportation Department  has the most up-to-date traffic alerts and information regarding transportation routes and detours in and around Baltimore, MD. If you are traveling through Virginia, please visit the  Virginia Department of Transportation  website for updates.

Transportation Routing for Commercial Motor Vehicles - Hazardous Materials

The  Maryland Transportation Department  has the most up-to-date traffic alerts and information regarding transportation routes and detours for commercial motor vehicles transporting hazardous materials in and around Baltimore, MD.   If you are traveling through Virginia, please visit the  Virginia Department of Transportation  website for updates.

Port of Baltimore

The Port of Baltimore remains open for truck transactions. Vessel (waterway) traffic into and out of the Port of Baltimore is suspended until further notice.

Social Media

• twitter.com/TheMDTA
• twitter.com/MDOTNews
• twitter.com/vadot

 Frequently Asked Questions

• The state of Maryland issued an Emergency Declaration on March 26, 2024, as a result of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore. How does FMCSA’s Extension of Emergency Declaration issued on April 4, 2024, affect me as a commercial motor vehicle driver? FMCSA’s Extension continues the emergency relief from Federal hours-of-service requirements in 49 CFR § 395.3 for motor carriers and drivers providing direct assistance to the immediate restoration of essential services and reopening of the navigable waters into the Port of Baltimore, including transportation of equipment and supplies related to immediate repairs to the roadways and waterways adjacent to the Port and removal of wreckage and debris from the waterways providing access to the Port.  In addition, the Extension provides limited relief from hours-of-service requirements by allowing an additional two hours to the 11-hour maximum driving time under 49 CFR § 395.3(a)(3)(i) for motor carriers and drivers who are transporting freight that has been diverted/rerouted from the Port of Baltimore to other east coast ports.  The Extension also provides targeted relief from the electronic logging device (ELD) installation requirements under 49 CFR § 395.8(a)(1)(i) for drivers and motor carriers that currently are not required to use an ELD, such as drivers and motor carriers that typically use the short-haul exemption in association with Port of Baltimore freight activity, and do not have an ELD already installed in their vehicle. The relief applies regardless of the motor carrier or origin of the trip, as long as the motor carrier or driver are providing direct assistance.  
• Does the Extension expand upon the original Emergency Declaration issued by the State of Maryland? The Extension of Emergency Declaration continues the relief from Federal hours-of-service requirements in 49 CFR §§ 395.3 for motor carriers and drivers providing direct assistance to the immediate restoration of essential services and reopening of the navigable waters into the Port of Baltimore. In addition, the Extension grants relief from 49 CFR § 395.3(a)(3)(i) to motor carriers and drivers engaged in the transport of commodities rerouted from the Port of Baltimore to other east coast ports. This relief extends the maximum 11-hour driving time for property-carrying vehicles by a maximum of two additional hours. Examples of commodities include fuel, intermodal freight, including shipping containers and their contents, automobiles, or other equipment transported in roll-on/roll-off operations such as heavy-duty machinery and farm equipment. Finally, the Extension allows drivers and motor carriers that are not currently required to use an ELD under 49 CFR § 395.8(a), such as motor carriers and drivers that typically operate under the short-haul exemption related to Port of Baltimore operations, and who are not currently required to use ELDs and do not currently have an ELD installed in the vehicle, to continue to engage in necessary freight activities associated with the other provisions of the Extension without the installation of an ELD as required under 49 CFR § 395.8(a)(1)(i). However, carriers and drivers using this relief are required to prepare and maintain paper logs and supporting documents while operating under the relief granted in this Extension.   
• I see the extension mentions relief from some hours-of-service requirements for fuel transportation rerouted from the Port of Baltimore, is this relief limited to specific areas around Baltimore? Yes. Motor carriers and drivers transporting fuel (gasoline, ethanol, propane, natural gas, and heating oil) from Maryland’s Curtis Bay terminal (within the Baltimore Marine Terminal area) for delivery to Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Carroll County, Cecil County, Frederick County, Harford County, Howard County, Queen Anne’s County, and Washington County are granted emergency relief from 49 CFR § 395.3(a)(3)(i). This relief applies to the maximum 11-hour driving time for property-carrying vehicles and allows up to a maximum of two additional hours for motor carrier and drivers engaged in fuel transport under this Extension. Transporting fuel to locations other than those listed is NOT covered under this extension.   
• Does the emergency relief from Federal hours-of-service regulations included in the Extension apply to motor carriers and commercial motor vehicle drivers who are NOT directly supporting emergency response efforts to reopen the Port of Baltimore and adjacent waterways but whose operations have been impacted by the bridge collapse? Motor carriers and drivers engaged in the transportation of freight rerouted from the Port of Baltimore to other East coast ports and fuel from the Curtis Bay terminal as outlined in the Extension are granted limited relief from some hours-of-service requirements. Motor carriers and drivers who are not transporting freight rerouted from the Port of Baltimore, but whose routes may be detoured due to the bridge collapse, are not covered by this Extension. Please read the Extension carefully to determine what relief applies to your specific operation.    
• Does emergency relief from Federal regulations due to the Extension of Emergency Declaration provide commercial vehicle drivers with relief from electronic logging device (ELD) requirements? Motor carriers and drivers identified as covered under Section III.A of the Extension who are currently not required to use an ELD, including those currently operating under the short-haul exception under 49 CFR § 395.1(e), are granted temporary emergency relief from the requirements under 49 CFR § 395.8(a) relating to ELD installation and use if they do not already have an ELD installed. Please note that such carriers are required to prepare and maintain paper records of duty status and supporting documents. For example, if motor carriers are operating beyond the limitations of the short-haul exception (14 hours, 150 air miles, and dispatch/return) in response to Port of Baltimore freight rerouting to other East coast ports, then drivers are required to prepare and maintain paper logs and supporting documents of their duty status while operating under this Extension.    
• How long will the relief from Federal hours-of-service regulations and other provisions be in effect? Unless FMCSA takes action to terminate the Extension, the relief provided in the Extension expires at the end of the emergency, or on May 8, 2024, whichever is earlier.   
• Can FMCSA extend the emergency relief from Federal regulations beyond May 8, 2024? Yes. FMCSA may extend the period of regulatory relief. Interested parties, including states, motor carriers and drivers, may request an extension by explaining why the extension is needed in an email to FMCSA’s emergency declarations mailbox, [email protected] .    
• Are there any options for motor carriers and drivers whose operations have been impacted by the bridge collapse and are not covered under the Extension of Emergency Declaration to request regulatory relief from Federal hours-of-service regulations? Yes. Motor carriers and drivers may request a waiver or exemption from certain Federal motor carrier regulations, such as the Federal hours-of-service regulations and electronic logging device requirements. The procedure for requesting waivers and exemptions can be found in Subpart B of 49 CFR Part 381. Waivers are limited in duration to three months. Exemptions may be issued for up to five years. The request must be sent to the Acting Deputy Administrator via email to [email protected] or by traditional mail to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey Ave., SE., Washington, DC 20590–0001. Requests should include information such as why the waiver or exemption is needed, how many drivers or vehicles will be operating under the waiver or exemption, and an explanation of how you will ensure the equivalent level of safety is met as provided by complying with the existing regulations. Please refer to the regulation for specific requirements.    
• Are there specific routes in place for the transportation of hazardous materials and restricted loads? Yes. Please visit the Maryland Department of Transportation website for guidance. If your route takes you through Virginia, you may wish to visit Virginia Department of Transportation .  
• I’m scheduled to transport a very wide load; how will I be impacted? Please visit the Maryland Department of Transportation website for  height and width restrictions for the Baltimore Harbor and Fort McHenry Tunnels as well as other roadways.  If your route takes you through Virginia, you may wish to visit Virginia Department of Transportation .  
• Where can I find general information for commercial motor vehicle routing and detours? Please visit the Maryland Department of Transportation website for up-to-date information regarding traffic alerts and routing information. You can also follow the agency on social media at twitter.com/TheMDTA and twitter.com/MDOTNews. If you are traveling through Virginia, you may wish to follow the Virginia Department of Transportation at twitter.com/vadot.  
• Will FMCSA provide additional outreach to motor carriers and drivers on the emergency relief from Federal hours-of-service requirements in this Extension?  Yes. In the coming days, FMCSA will conduct a virtual outreach session to provide information on the hours-of-service provisions in the Extension. A recording of the outreach session will be available on this site. Please continue to check this page for information on the upcoming outreach session. Additional hours-of-service guidance can be found on the FMCSA hours-of-service website . FMCSA’s Interstate Truck Driver’s Guide to Hours-of-Service can be found here .