The Initial Strategy on reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ships adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 2018 commits the IMO to reduce total GHG emissions of shipping by at least 50% by 2050. Though the direction of the Strategy is clear, the path to implementation remains uncertain. The ambitious IMO’s target calls for widespread uptake of lower and zero-carbon fuels, in addition to other energy efficiency measures, including operational and market ones. Using a triangulated research approach, this paper provides a critical overview of the main measures and initiatives the shipping industry can adopt to try to cope with the new IMO’s requirements. The pros and cons of the most popular emission reduction options are investigated along with the main challenges and barriers to implementation and the potential facilitators that could foster a wider application. The framework that is outlined is complex and not without controversy. Research can play a key role as a facilitator of shipping’s decarbonization by providing its contribution to overcoming the existing controversies on various decarbonization options and by developing a wealth of knowledge that can encourage the implementation of low-carbon initiatives.

One of the most important issues in Transhipment Container Terminal (TCT) management is to have fairly reliable and affordable predictions about vessel arrival. Terminal operators need to estimate the actual time of arrival in port in order to determine the daily demand for each work shift with greater accuracy. In this way, the resources required (human resources, equipment as well as spatial resources) can be allocated more efficiently. Despite contractual obligations to notify the Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) 24 hours before arrival, ship operators often have to revise it due to unexpected events like weather conditions, delay in a previous port and so on. For planners the decision-making processes related to this topic can sometimes be so complex without the support of suitable methodological tools. Specific models should be adopted, in a daily planning scenario, to provide a useful support tool in TCTs. In this study, we discuss an exploratory analysis of the data affecting delays registered at a Mediterranean TCT. We present some preliminary results obtained using data mining techniques and propose a Classification and Regression Trees (CART) model to reduce the range of uncertainty of ship arrivals in port. This approach is compulsory to manage vast amounts of unstructured data involved in estimating of vessel arrivals.

Freight transport in urban areas entails benefits (i.e. free access to goods when needed), but also negative externalities (environmental, social and transportation impacts). In response to these problems, the concept of city logistics emerged, for the purpose of planning, organizing, coordinating and controlling physical and information flows in order to find a compromise between efficient freight distribution in urban areas and protection of the environment. A typical city logistics initiative is the Urban Freight Consolidation Centre (UFCC), the benefits of which are significant. Its financial issues though represent a huge problem for public administrations. However, a large customer network, comprising retailers participating in the initiative, could make the UFCC a self-financing scheme. The key to expanding the scheme is closely linked with marketing campaigns and customer care. Therefore, customer care analysis represents an important tool in developing UFCC schemes. In this paper, a new Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) is proposed for evaluating UFCC service quality. The new index, named CSImod, is a modified version of the traditional CSI, but places greater emphasis on customer dissatisfaction, so as to analyse the most critical areas of the service with a view to improving them. The index has been tested using experimental data collected within the CIVITAS RENAISSANCE Project, in which the Bristol and Bath Freight Consolidation Centre (BBFCC) scheme was evaluated. The evaluation was done from a user perspective, i.e. the participating retailers. The CSImod places more importance on the most dissatisfied customers making it possible to understand why they are dissatisfied and with what. Thus, it is possible to intervene with the aim of improving those areas of the service that are perceived as the worst. In spite of the high level of satisfaction with the overall service provided by the BBFCC, thanks to the CSImod the analysis pointed out that some retailers are dissatisfied with the delivery time arrangements and also with deliveries that were getting wet, issues about which the BBFCC manager was totally unaware. The CSImod could be used by UFCC operators to extend the network of the retailers involved and could therefore provide an implicit solution for making the scheme self-financing.