ABSTRACT

Reliability is also a very important attribute when freight transport fi rms’ plans are considered. A recent study by Muilerman et al. (2005) has ascertained that fi rms that adopt time-based strategies refer to on-time reliability (regarded as a

trade-off with costs) of their logistics networks as the most important factor driving the evolution of their strategies and the shift from unimodal to multimodal freight transport options. Logisticians may be more interested in increasing on-time reliability, even if this implies a more costly logistics structure. Moreover, traditional logistics literature has emphasized the relationship between transport-related uncertainty and inventory management costs (see, among others, Closs et al., 2003 for rail transport and Saldanha et al., 2006 in the case of maritime transport. See also Chapter 5 in this volume on integrated transport policy in freight transport).