Overview
Concepts of intermodal transport, combined transport, multimodal transport and modality are often used in different contexts. Since Transport Agency is one of the authorities in the transport sector, there was brought the idea of initiating an investigation aimed at enhancing our knowledge of traffic laws and how they influence and interact with each other, and at clarification of the role of the Transport Agency.
The work aims to:
• describe the market for intermodal and combined transport,
• describe how the concept of intermodal transport has been handled at the EU level and at national political level as well as from a business perspective,
• describe the Transport Agency and other relevant actors in the intermodal transport.
Information for this project has been collected by various methods. The policy discussion at EU and national level have mostly acquired through literature studies and some interviews. The assignment included both interviews with actors active in intermodal transporter and a mapping of existing statistics in the area.
Results
Some of the conclusions are based on the fact that development of the intermodal transport at EU level has not reached the desired level.
Transport Agency is included as one of several creative players in the field of transport and thus will, to some extent, influence the direction of transport development.
The problem is that there are regulations mainly for only one mode, examples of these can be rules for dangerous goods and cargo securing rules, which can lead to difficulties by the transfer of goods between modes.
The authority needs to increase knowledge of intermodal perspective where will be a greater degree of integration and which will be seen from the business perspective. Transport Agency needs for example in the impact assessment to adopt a broader perspective and to evaluate the impact on several parts of the transport system.
In addition it is proposed that within the intermodal market surveillance it is needed to carry out a study on the terminals and ports and its function. It also suggested a study of the intermodal perspective linked to the transport of passengers, as advocated in both EU and national levels.