In the literature, the link between companies’ transport, logistics and production strategies has been acknowledged for a long time. Public policies have recently started to take into account such bond, specifically through some European Commission’s recommendations in support of co-modality. However, the main intervention areas remain transport related: bottleneck analysis, set up of dedicated railway network, promotion of multimodal transport. In this paper, we argue that transport strategies are the result of multiple constraints, and that they cannot be considered in isolation. They are in particular strongly dependent on logistic processes, and production systems. The place of transport will be thus very different, according to the logistics and production contexts. It will be inevitably modified by the selected sustainability actions in the fields of logistics and production, which evolve over time. Accordingly, the degrees of freedom for companies towards sustainable transport will not be identical for all, certain firms being confronted to more constraints than others.Against such background, an effective promotion of sustainable logistics and transport practices requires that public policies are adapted and conceived according to the specific constraints and characteristics of each production system.
The purpose of this article is to propose an analytic framework for transport strategic practices in the context of contemporary supply networks. The analytic framework is based on two structuring axes: on the one hand, the organisational know-how developed by the carrier; on the other hand, the degree of coordination necessary for efficient supply chain functioning. The analytic framework proposes four configurations the relevance of which is discussed using strategies of the Geodis group. It is possible to conclude, from a managerial point of view, two possible trajectories for transport strategic practices. The risk of the first trajectory is to make the carrier fall into a kind of trap from which it will have a great deal of trouble getting out off; the second trajectory is connected with a “winning strategy” favouring its development on the marketplace.
The strengthening of logistics activities within companies did contribute to their separation from transport activities, and specifically to third party outsourcing. Thus, firms focused on logistics, neglecting transport which they considered as basic and providing less opportunity in terms of productivity or differentiation.Logistics activities are now reaching maturity, which explains why firms in the chain are now interested in transportation activities as a means of improving service value.This for three reasons: First, the improvement of logistics services hits a ceiling if they fail to include transport seamlessly to offer an integrated service providing continuity. Second, transport ownership becomes the key to influence relations between suppliers and retailers. Third, the internatio-nalization of flows contributes to the development of alternative modes to road transport.So, the revival of the importance attached to transport in logistics services is significant due to the durability of the role of space in the understanding of economic dynamics and managerial decisions within firms.
Logistics service players offer disruptive activities. They gradually turn from transport to value added and competitive services. Meanwhile, the sector goes more and more structured by huge global players. Logistics service activities thus illustrate perfectly the generic difficulties to define service industry. How can we delimitate nowadays logistics services players? How do they define and promote their own activities?Through that contribution, we examine firstly the evolution of the logistics industry, the interrelation between transportation and logistics on one hand and between logistics activities and generic services on the other hand. Secondly this paper presents strategic business units of some world logistics players and the way they promote their offers through their Internet websites.
This article explores the concept of " interchange station ", through an analysis terminology. The evolution of semantic networks nodes that we detail in this work, shows a more off their dual dimension to both network element and territory. Based on a literature review, this terminology will help clarify neighbours words used in different contexts. The article demonstrate that the emergence of the term " interchange station " and its equivalent " park and ride" makes sense in relation to the evolution of these devices. Indeed, the need to "appoint" those places complex demonstrates their importance in the organization of networks and urban functions (distribution of the habitat, activity, service ...). These dynamics should lead to a growing interest in these places but not enough to solve the diversity of approaches, definitions and ways of doing interchange station.
The question of the accessibility of the isolated rural agglomerations constitutes a major constraint with the local and regional development. the approach of the closing of rural should start with the study of the transport system, in particular the local area network, which falls the spot to break this insulation and to ensure the integration of space in a process of opening.Kabylie is marked by an important space and functional imbalance. The significant number of agglomerations produces a fragmented and completely heterogeneous space, more based on the functional proximity on the space proximity. Specificities economic, political, geographical and sociocultural from Kabylie results a relation from dependence which attaches the small rural agglomerations to the residential areas. It is this reticular characteristic which should ensure the correct operation of this fragmented space system. However, in the moment when balance, if fragile, of the space system kabyle rests on the quality of its system of transport, the dysfunction of this last comes to disturb this balance and to worsen, consequently, the margina-lisation and the closing of the small agglomerations.