This paper develops a framework for the massification concept and identifies the success and failure elements as well as the evaluation criteria for a successful massification concept.
Well-established logistics clusters, in search of bundling existing good flows with other flows in the logistics chain, still do not leverage their full potentials in terms of competitiveness and sustainability for the European industry and society. There are several reasons such as a lack of advanced collaboration practices between the local actors (i.e. shippers and transport operators) in the cluster and insufficient connectivity and coordination between European logistics clusters to maximize the full network potential of the clusters and related hubs.
One solution to address these problems is to set up a massification concept. Under the ‘massification concept’ is understood the bundling of flows of several companies (a.o. industrial shippers or retailers) for shipment to the same destination to increase the utilization of transport capacities. So, massification can bring about a more sustainable modal shift. To do so, a growth lever might be the use of tools such as the xIntermodal tool and Quick Check tool; newly developed within the H2020 Clusters 2.0 project. The Clusters 2.0 project encourages establishment logistics clusters integration into a high performing synchromodal transportation network at the EU scale and improves transport efficiency. These innovative initiatives, implemented in Clusters 2.0, comprise a wide range of advantages that constitute a strong argument to support the related mind shift in the logistics market.
To do this, a governance body structure is defined and gain-sharing mechanisms are reviewed. The findings firstly reveal that the success of the massification concept strongly depends on the availability and sharing of data and collaboration of different shippers. Secondly, the newly developed tools allow better mapping of the transportation flows in the European transportation network.
Read and “Collaboration methodology in between logistics clusters“. You can also access and download all Clusters 2.0 academic publications on Zenodo.
