Jason Monios

Kedge Business School

This paper examines the role of supportive policies and value-added services which may incentivise retailers to use an urban consolidation centre (UCC). The methodology is a case study of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, based on semi-structured interviews with 30 retailers. Results show that retailers are generally not positive towards using UCCs,...

This paper investigates changes in European container port rankings, in order to determine if and how a new dynamic phase can follow a phase of maturity in a container port range. We examine mobility in ranking during 2000-2019 and shed light on the influence of neighbouring ports in a range as well as the level of maturity of each range. Findings...

This paper addresses the role of policy in driving technology change to reduce maritime transport emissions. While liquefied natural gas (LNG) is little better than fuel oil from a carbon perspective, it emits very low levels of other pollutants Sulphur Oxides (SOx), Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) and Particulate Matter (PM). However, despite a great deal o...

Battery-electric heavy-duty trucks (BEHDTs) offer significant carbon savings compared to diesel trucks, yet they pose certain challenges with regard to their range and charging needs. As the takeup is extremely low, representing around 1% of new sales, the motivation of this paper is to investigate how this takeup can be accelerated. The research g...

Shipping contributes roughly 2.8 % of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and this is projected to increase in the decades to come. The main regulator of the shipping industry, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), bears the responsibility for developing climate change regulation. Yet the IMO decarbonisation target remains...

This paper questions the dominance of market-based mechanisms (MBMs) as the primary means of climate change mitigation. It argues that, not only they are unsuccessful on their own terms, but also they actually make the task more difficult by the unintended consequence of normalising the act of polluting and crowding out alternatives. The theoretica...

This paper applies a mobilities perspective to the collapse of Hanjin Shipping in 2017, then the seventh-largest shipping line in the world and the biggest bankruptcy in the 50-year history of container shipping. Drawing on the notion of smooth space from Deleuze and Guattari that has previously been applied to the maritime transport sector to repr...

This paper considers two current challenges in the governance of maritime transport, specifically container shipping. The first is the oligopolistic market structure of container shipping, the downsides of which became evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. The second challenge is climate change, both the need to reduce emissions to zero by 2050 and...

This chapter presents the current French port governance system that has been shaped over the last four decades. The key evolutions and features of the legal framework applied to the large and secondary French seaports (called ‘Grand Port Maritimes’) are evaluated through a critical lens showing that the successive port regulations, new planning an...

This chapter discusses the recent concepts of “deep adaptation” and “collapsology”, which argue that, rather than climate change bringing discrete challenges to which cities can adapt separately, we should rather expect “disruptive and uncontrollable levels of climate change, bringing starvation, destruction, migration, disease and war”. These pers...

This paper analyses two differing approaches to the improvement of local bus services, using the analytical lens of formal and informal institutions. Both formal and informal institutions govern the behaviour of authorities and operators, but they do it in different ways and they have advantages and disadvantages. In so doing we seek to understand...

The aim of this paper is to test for the existence of a middle-rank growth trap in the container port market. This work adopts an original perspective to study the dynamics of port hierarchies by applying different rank-size models, a Markov chain approach and transition modelling to a dataset featuring the annual traffic of 222 container ports fro...

This paper explores the process of deinstitutionalization of maritime transport governance due to competing institutional logics. The sector continues to operate with a business-as-usual logic while simultaneously paying lip service to a logic of sustainability. The key regulator of the sector, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), attempt...

Port facilities expand or are relocated from their original locations according to several factors, such as outgrowing a limited space or avoiding clashes of use with expanding cities. Previous spatial models such as the famous Anyport model imply a natural evolution in port systems which can in reality be complicated by issues of port governance a...

This paper explores influences on a migration of hub status in an intermodal network from a port to an inland node by following the life cycle of an inland terminal development. The methodology is a longitudinal case study of the Swedish intermodal system over a period of 20 years, based on documentation, interviews and action research. We observe...

Dry ports are one key option in effective port hinterland integration. This article discusses the development of the dry port discussion over the last three decades and identifies the current main challenges and potential to make these part of more sustainable transport systems.

The aim of this chapter is to revisit in the context of more recent work in the field the work of Cullinane and Wilmsmeier (2011) on the contribution of the dry port concept to the extension of the port life cycle. This extension relied on the use of vertically integrated corridors between the port and the dry port to move containers quickly and sm...

This study explores the principal-agent problem as part of a broader discussion of the challenges of privatising and outsourcing of public utilities. The research asks: how can a public transport authority (the principal) motivate bus operators (agents) to achieve the authority's goals (more and better public transport) when their respective intere...

This paper investigates the evolutionary technical efficiency and productivity of ports in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The focus is primarily on Caribbean SIDS, benchmarked against two comparator groups: major top ports and ports in other SIDS in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Both a non-parametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) and the...

In recent years a significant body of work has been established on climate change adaptation by ports. Like climate change mitigation, work towards adaptation has stalled on the same collective action problem, whereby public and private sector actors avoid commitment to necessary investments. Recently the concept of ‘deep adaptation’ has appeared,...

While large dry ports with high throughput are more likely to have onsite rail access, the question is more difficult for small and medium sites, which may not have sufficient throughput for rail viability. Thus whether a new dry port development should be located with or without direct rail access is a major concern at the proposal stage. This cha...

The book addresses the contemporary development and connections between transport and regional sustainability, including its geography, planning, economics, management, policy and regulations, governance, and organizational behaviors. It is divided into five parts, namely theoretical settings, adapting to climate change impacts, improving environme...

This chapter reviews the different institutions and players in environmental governance in shipping and ports. From the global International Maritime Organization (IMO) to national policy to local planning ordinances, a variety of regulations and planning regimes interact to govern this complex global sector. Yet the existence of overlapping jurisd...

The full adoption of electric autonomous vehicles (EAVs) will revolutionise the global transport system in general and road freight transport in particular. Traditional business models based on manufacturers selling trucks to operators could conceivably disappear. As with passenger transport, the rapid obsolescence of the technology and the cost wi...

This study investigates how supportive urban freight transport (UFT) policies work in conjunction with stakeholder collaboration to support public-led urban consolidation centre (UCC) developments. The methodology was a multiple case study approach, comparing cases in Sweden and Scotland, two countries that are more/less advanced in their approach...

The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the transport geography of electric and autonomous vehicles for road freight transport and establish a research agenda by identifying many unresolved issues already beginning to emerge. While regulatory approval for full coverage on all roads remains some years away, autonomous vehicles are already operatin...

This paper applies the theory of polycentric governance to the port sector. The paper demonstrates that port governance is already polycentric, including a variety of actors at different scales with overlapping jurisdictions, but some of the established principles of effective polycentric governance such as collective choice arrangements and distri...

While immediate port hinterlands remain relatively captive, distant hinterlands are fiercely contested. Where road is the dominant mode, transport costs are a function of distance which is therefore often the key determinant of port choice. Where distance is sufficiently long to enable rail to compete, other factors become important, such as termin...

Individual freight transport policies have been investigated in the literature extensively in the last 10–15 years, yet there has surprisingly been very little attention to the process of selecting urban freight transport (UFT) policy measures. This study focuses on UFT policy choice by local authorities, investigating how policy context, resource...

This paper explores container port system evolution and port choice from the perspective of a regional or secondary (feeder and short sea) system. Theory predicts that large-scale container port systems tend towards concentration, rationalizing the number of ports, followed by deconcentration. By contrast, regional port systems remain under-researc...

This paper explores the changing geography of governance in the British freight transport sector. Policy and regulation have evolved in a neoliberal direction based on private sector provision of transport services, resulting in a much smaller role for the public sector. An exploration of the intersection between the previous institutional settings...

Seaports are crucial actors in the global freight transportation system, serving as the hubs and gateways for international trade. While in recent years some ports have actively attempted to mitigate their environmental impacts, detailed knowledge of the available strategies and best practice remains fragmented. Green Ports offers the latest rese...

Urban freight transport (UFT) provides the last mile delivery of goods, return of unwanted or recyclable goods and the removal of waste. Despite such benefits, freight vehicles often cause adverse impacts on the economy, environment and society such as air pollution, reduced mobility, congestion and road casualties. Local authorities implement vari...

Some evidence has emerged of second-tier hubs inserting themselves between hubs and feeder ports, producing a new hierarchy of port networks. This article aims to establish the dynamics of this process based on illustrative cases in Asia, South America, and Europe. Findings reveal spatial factors to include a cluster of small ports with minimal sai...

The purpose of this paper is to understand the relationship between the formal (governance established in law) and informal institutions (governance not established in law) that underpin the planning, operation and improvement of local and regional public transport, by using case studies of four countries: Britain (more specifically England, outsid...

Emissions from shipping contribute significantly to both climate change and local air pollution. Cold ironing (onshore power supply) reduces emissions while ships are berthed in port by providing power from shore-side electricity rather than onboard auxiliary generators. Previous research has focused on installing the technology in large ports but...

The paper explores the perceptions of port decision-makers on the effectiveness of climate adaptation actions. The findings suggest that while port decision-makers are aware of potential climate change impacts and feel that more adaptation actions should be undertaken, they are sceptical about their effectiveness and value. This is complemented by...

This paper performs an institutional analysis of the adaptation to climate change by ports, through a case study of the port of Vancouver, Canada. It reveals how, in the case of an unprecedented challenge like climate adaptation, relying on informal institutions with less agency can actually erode the strength of existing institutions in a form of...

Despite a growing literature on strategies to reduce emissions and other externalities in shipping and ports, very little attention has been given to the port’s role in reducing negative externalities in its hinterland. This paper addresses this gap by reviewing ports across the globe to identify which ports have implemented measures to improve the...

The central concerns of mobilities research – exploring the broader context and human aspects of movement - are fundamental to an understanding of the maritime freight transport sector. Challenges to the environment, attempts at more sustainable practices, changes in the geoeconomic system, political power, labour, economic development and governa...

This paper explores the use of dry ports as a tool of both inter-port competition and potential co-opetition. The case examined is of hinterland access to central Europe by Adriatic ports, an area that is mostly served by North European ports despite a much shorter sailing distance from Asian to Adriatic ports. A port choice model based on preferen...

One of the key themes of this book is to build a bridge between mobilities and (trans)port geography. In a recent paper (Wilmsmeier and Monios, 2015), we identified several drivers for the creation of smooth space in global port operations and characterised ports as capitalist spaces, working on a capitalist logic of value creation, migration and d...

This chapter explores the concept of unproductive mobilities. These exist in several forms in maritime transport, from transporting empty containers or fuel wastage to service and ship overcapacity. Two specific and related forms are analysed in detail: overcapacity of vessels due to the rush to order ultra-large container ships, which leads to a c...

This research aims to identify barriers to the implementation of local transport policy by exploring bus policy implementation in Great Britain. The methodology is based on an online survey with 56% of local authorities and follow-up interviews with 10 of those officers, analysed via a ten-point hybrid theory. The greatest challenges faced by local...

The UK Transport Act 2000 made a number of reforms, requiring all local transport authorities in England, outside of London, to produce a local transport plan (LTP). A separate annual delivery report was also required to show how the LTP was progressing, however this system of close monitoring was abandoned in 2008. This paper analyses and compares...

The goal of this paper is to explore the intersection between two streams of literature: port cities and port-centric logistics. While many ports have moved out of city locations, partly facilitated by intermodal corridors, some ports remain in city locations, many retaining a large share of distribution activity in or near the port. This paper wil...

Applying sophisticated management techniques to freight transport offers the potential for significant cost savings as well as greater efficiency. Yet the inherent complexity of intermodal transport presents many challenges. This practical textbook on the operations of intermodal transport and logistics focuses on the practical concerns and the ba...

The UK's highly privatised port system means that, while many of the issues in the port governance literature relevant to port concessions do not arise here, the respective roles of harbour authorities and port operators continue to be questioned. The concern in the UK is whose role it should be to monitor the capacity and service quality of the po...

This paper applies the marketing strategy literature to the four phases of the intermodal terminal life cycle (ITLC) to identify the appropriate competitive strategy to be undertaken at each phase, based on fluctuating markets and competitor behaviour. Not only can applying the correct strategy at each phase help to obtain a competitive advantage,...

This paper analyzes how public transport planning is managed in institutional contexts where governance is spread across local and regional scales. The paper sheds light on two facets of the relationship between local and regional government: first, the decision-making process regarding where to provide public transport services and at what level,...

Small container ports rely on feeder services from hub ports to provide access to unitised trade flows for their hinterlands. They generally possess limited water depth and handling facilities, as investments required to handle larger vessels are not justified by their low container throughput. This paper questions the future of small ports due to...

While the features of successful policy transfer are well known, there is some evidence that increase in policy transfer is associated with convergence of not just policies but institutional and organisational forms. Institutional isomorphism is often a result of copying organisational form as a way of securing legitimacy rather than seeking succes...