L91 - Transportation: GeneralReturn

The expansion of the European Union (EU) and economic growth have propelled the development of intermodal transportation and logistics activities in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Yet, the inland location of most CEE economies requires improved connectivity to port terminals on both the Atlantic/Baltic and Mediterranean/Black Sea ranges. The paper provides a broader research perspective on inland logistics platforms focusing on the CEE region, particularly as it concerns the role of the public sector in port hinterland infrastructure development. The paper identifies the current bottlenecks in logistics activity in regard to the whole range of the national transport chains. A dual regionalization process is taking place between the ports of the Northern and Mediterranean ranges and that the Northern Range is more effective at servicing the CEE region, including the Czech Republic, in spite of the proximity advantage of Mediterranean ports.

The forthcoming research characterises and analyses the key market players (shipping lines), their customer service policy together with the implications the container transport bottlenecks have for the market in the Czech Republic with customer orientation being one of these. Evaluating companies' customer orientation and analyzing container shipping dimensions in the market of transport and logistics is a highly complex task, especially in the times of the changes in the market. To obtain the data necessary for an informed analysis, open interviews with selected customer service managers will be made and questionnaires distributed in the Czech Republic. Due to the concentration of container and logistics activity within a relatively small number of global shipping lines present in the countries with substantial market share, the approach of market characteristics will be case study based. It must be stressed this is a conceptual paper only, the data has not been collected yet; therefore, there is no conclusion on the research. It is focused primarily on methodology applied and a literature review.

The objective of this research is to analyze the customer service orientation and policy of Czech logistics providers (3PLs), global shipping lines and multimodal transport operators (MTOs). Evaluating customer orientation in the market of transport and logistics is a highly complex task. To obtain the data necessary for an informed analysis, open interviews will be made and questionnaires will be distributed to the relevant companies' managers in the Czech Republic. Due to the concentration of container and logistics activity within the relatively small number of important market players active in the country's market, the approach of market characteristics will be case study based. Moreover, the research will offer an important analysis of the shipping lines' and logistics providers' services in terms of customer service policy in the Czech Republic. If possible and feasible given the data, a survey of customer perspectives will also be undertaken. The conceptual part of the paper focuses on a literature review, methodology and anticipated results only.