ABSTRACT
The rapid growth of international trade (and resulting container shipping) has imposed tremendous pressure on the intermodal transportation system. As indicated by Heaver (2006), the bottleneck of such intermodal chains has shifted from the ship/port interface to the port/inland interface. In the US, for example, the limited capacity of the highway system resulted in an inability to withstand demand shocks, which caused congestion on key freight transport segments (TTI 2010). Road congestion delays raise traveling times and fuel costs, lower the reliability of commercial truck operations and increase the chance of missing schedules (FHWA 2004). All of these factors could translate into costs endured by shippers who select the intermodal chain to ship their cargoes.1 As a large proportion of the containers are moved into and out of seaports by trucking, the congestion at urban roads surrounding the seaports has become one of the essential factors that influences a port’s ability to sustain its competitiveness.
