TEK124 Freight transport systems

(7,5 high education credits)

Compulsory course in the: Master’s Programme in Supply Chain Management

Course is offered by the Department of Technology Management and Economics (TME),

Examiner/ lecturer: Violeta Roso, Associate professor  violeta.roso@chalmers.se

Group work supervisor and study visit leader Maxence Breteau breteau@chalmers.se 

Lecturers from Division SOM, Chalmers:

DA     Dan Andersson, Associate Professor

CAV   Ceren Altuntas Vural, Associate Professor

IC       Ivan Cardenas, Associate Professor 

Guest Lecturers from industry:

VA – Magnus Nordfelt, Gothenburg Port Authority

AL - Anna Ledin, Maersk Scandinavia

PW - Per Wahlström, AMP Terminals

Chalmers Allumni: 

NM - Nina Modig, PhD, Create Flow

POA - Per-Olof Arnäs, PhD 

 

Course aim and learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to characterise and analyse the systems producing freight transport services in a technical, operational, management and policy context.

After a successfully completed course, the student shall, in the domain of freight transport, be able to:

• define technical terms and explain basic technical and operational concepts
• characterise the traffic modes road, rail, sea, air and pipelines as well as combinations of them
• combine technical components and operational concepts into freight transport systems
• choose and illustrate an appropriate transport service for a specific transport demand
• review the trends and challenges for the freight transport industry
• solve simple route planning and transport allocation problems quantitatively

Prerequisites

The course is compulsory for the students of the Master’s programme Supply Chain Management. Other students may be accepted upon vacancy, this admittance is decided on a case-by-case basis.

Content

When studying freight transport systems it is crucial to understand the demand for the services as well as properties of freight transport systems and their components used in supplying the transport services, as well as the influence of policy decisions. The perspectives of transport operators, their customers and the society are taken in this course and the focus is mostly on European conditions. The course covers the following topics:

• Basic terms and concepts used in freight transport
• The actors in a transport system
• The demand for and the supply of freight transport
• The technological and economic characteristics of the different modes of transport
• Intermodal transport
• Transport networks and terminals
• Environmental aspects of logistics and transport
• Sustainable transport solutions
• Transport optimisation

Course organisation

The course includes lectures, exercises (live and pre-recorded), group works in the classroom, assignments, seminars, study visit, guest lectures and quizzes. More details on all mandatory moments bellow.

Lectures: Lectures and guest-lectures based on different teaching methods will be on the campus. Only in the case of emergency (sickness or other hindrances for lecturers) the lectures shall be moved to zoom; and you'll be informed on time. 

Exercises: Exercises Transport Allocation and Route Planning will be available on videos followed up by group works, discussions and workshops on campus.  

Study visit to the port of Gothenburg, APM terminal, buss round-tour on November 24th starting at 9.30 and ending at 12.00. We meet in front of Vasa building where buss will be waiting for us. 

Assignment and seminar:

• Assignment Dry Ports (ADP) to be solved in groups, report and presentation to submit; present on the seminar. 

Group works in the classroom:

• The task ”The cost structure of an intermodal transport ” CSIT shall be performed in the classroom in groups. The students shall be divided in groups on spot; do the task and discuss the same directly in the classroom.
• The task " Critical distance for Intermodal Transport" CDIT shall be performed in the classroom in groups. The students shall be divided in groups on spot; do the task and discuss the same directly in the classroom.

Continuous assessments – Quizzes: Continuous assessment is based on Inspera quizzes where students are required to complete a real-time, in-class quiz on the related weeks' topics. Quizzes can only be taken in the classroom (centrally controlled by the exam unit so the rooms will be announced later) and are mandatory to attend. Not attending one assessment session will result in failing the course. In case of an illness or another force majeur condition, the re-assessment will be in the form of an oral exam where two examiners will evaluate the student together.

Examination:

For passing the course, the following course elements have to be accomplished:

• Attendance at all compulsory moments (guest lectures, seminars, study visit and group works).
• Pass all the assignments 
• Pass the quizzes

Examination is in the form of continuous assessment!

A total course score 99 points: 50-66 points = 3; 67 to 83 points = 4; 84 to 99 points = 5.

• ADP is graded as passed/not passed. .

• Quiz - each quiz can give 33 points, 10 points are required for pass on a quiz. All three quizzes have to be passed to count for the final grade. 

Failing on any of the mandatory examination moments will result in an oral exam on the date to be determined.

Literature

Textbooks a and b (only selected chapters):

• Ta: Lumsden, K. R. L. (2007) Fundamentals of logistics, Selected chapters in the Compendium which is available as pdf under files. It is translated from the textbook in Swedish: Lumsden, K. (2006) Logistikens grunder, Studentlitteratur, Lund, but it is also available in a newer edition: Lumsden, K., Stefansson, G., Woxenius, J. (2019) Logistikens grunder (Fundamentals of logistics), 4^th edition, Studentlitteratur, Lund. Corresponding chapters in the new edition: 1, 2, 4-8, 15-17 and 20.
• Tb: Rodrigue, J-P (2020) The Geography of Transport Systems, New York: Routledge. Only selected chapters: 4 (Environment); 5 (Transport modes) mostly 5.3 (Pipelines) and 5.6 (intermodal transport); and 6 (Terminals). The book is available online https://transportgeography.org

 

Articles:

Following articles will be used in addition to the textbooks some available via the links provided and some are available under the files.

• A1 Cullinane, K. and Khanna, M (2000) Economies of scale in large containerships: optimal size and geographical implications, Journal of Transport Geography 8 (2000) 181±195
• A2 Russell, R, Ruamsook, K. and Roso, V. (2020) Managing supply chain uncertainty by building flexibility in container port capacity: a logistics triad perspective and the COVID‑19 case. Maritime Economics&Logistics. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41278-020-00168-1 
• A3 Roso, V (2013) Sustainable intermodal transport via dry ports - importance of directional development, World Review of Intermodal Transportation Research, Vol.4, No 2/3, pp. 140-156.
• A4 Cullinane, K. and Bergqvist (2014) Emission control areas and their impact on maritime transport, Transportation Research Part D, 28, 1–5.
• A5 Altuntas Vural, C., Roso, V., Halldorsson, A. et al (2020) Can digitalization mitigate barriers to intermodal transport? An exploratory study. Research in Transportation Business and Management. Vol. In Press art. No. 100525. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210539519302585?via%3Dihub
• A6 Flodén, J., Woxenius, J. (2017) Agility in the Swedish intermodal freight market – the effects of the withdrawal of the main provider, Research in Transportation Business & Management, 23, pp. 21-34.

Extra material related to dry ports: Khaslavskaya, A., Roso, V. Dry ports: research outcomes, trends, and future implications.Marit Econ Logist 22, 265–292 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41278-020-00152-9https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057%2Fs41278-020-00152-9

Additional material, e.g. articles but mainly pdfs of PowerPoint presentations, will be available under files.

Course Evaluation

In order to improve the course, the course evaluation group of is to be formed with the aim of developing the goals, contents and pedagogy of the course, focusing on student learning. The process shall encourage a dialogue between teacher and students on how the education can be improved, i.e. current and future course, as well as the study programme as a whole. The course evaluation meetings with the course evaluation group and the teacher will be held on 3 occasions on dates to be determined. Comments and suggestions regarding the course should be given to the student representatives.

Randomly chosen students for the course evaluation: TBD

Schedule

Note that all mandatory moments are in bold! If you are unable to attend, please contact Violeta via email. Consultation is opportunity for you to ask questions, if you have any. Do not book those time windows just in case but only when you need it. Lecturers' initials are in the brackets in the schedule. Relevant book chapters, articles to read for each session and other related materials are noted in the schedule bellow.

 

Date	Time	Topic, Literature, Lecturer	Room
3/11	10-10.45	Course introduction (VR)	Vasa L7
	11-11-14	Freight transport  (VR) Ta1, 2, 4	Vasa L7
5/11	10-10.45	Transport modes: Road (DA) Ta5	Vasa B
	11-11-14	Transport modes: Rail (VR) Ta6	Vasa B
	13.15-14	Transport modes: Sea (CAV) Ta7; A1	Vasa D01
	14.15-15	Transport modes: Air & Pipelines (VR) Ta8, Tb5.3	Vasa D01
	15.15-16	Assignments introduction (VR)	Vasa B
10/11	9-9.45	Unit loads (VR) Ta17&18; Tb5.6	Vasa B
	10-11.45	Intermodal transport system (VR) Ta17&18; Tb5.6, A6	Vasa L7
12/11	10-11.45	Group work “Cost structure of intermodal transport” (VR &MB)	Vasa B
	13.15-14	Guest Maersk	Vasa B
	14.15-15	Guest Port of Gothenburg	Vasa B
	15.15-16	Group work CSIT presentation of the results  (VR &MB)	Vasa B
	16	Consultations (VR)	Vasa B
17/11	11-12	QUIZ 1 INSPERA	TBD
19/11	10-11.45	FIESTA – logistics model (NM)	Vasa B
	13.15-14	Terminals Tb6  (VR)	Vasa L7
	14.15-16	Group work “Critical distance of intermodal transport” (VR&MB)	Vasa L7
	16	Group work CDIT presentation of the results  (VR &MB)	Vasa B
24/11	9.30-12	Visit to APM terminal & Port of GBG (VR&MB)	Buss
26/11	10-11.45	Transport allocation (VR)	Vasa B
	13.15-14	Transport allocation (VR)	Vasa B
	14.15-15	Guest APM terminals	Vasa B
	15	Transport allocation digital tools (IC)	Vasa B
1/12	10-11.45	Digitalization (POA)	Vasa L7
3/12	11-12	QUIZ 2 INSPERA	TBD
	13.15-14	Transport and environment (VR) Tb4	Vasa B
	14.15-16	Sustainable transport solutions (VR) Tb4, A3	Vasa B
	16	Consultations (VR)	Vasa B
8/12	9-9.45	Resource utilization (VR) Ta22	Vasa L7
	10-11.45	Route planning exercise (VR)	Vasa L7
10/12	10-11.45	ADP seminar Group1 (VR &MB))	Vasa B
	13.15-15	ADP seminar Group2 (VR)	Vasa B
15/12	9-945	Sustainable development in transport (CAV) & Course summary- Wrap up (VR)	Vasa B
17/12	11-12	QUIZ 3 Inspera	TBD