CORDIS provides links to public deliverables and publications of HORIZON projects.
Links to deliverables and publications from FP7 projects, as well as links to some specific result types such as dataset and software, are dynamically retrieved from OpenAIRE .
Exploitable results
The main objective of the IMPREND project is the improvement of the first and final leg of the intermodal transport chain: pre- and endhaulage. Improving pre- and endhaulage from, to and at terminals, will make this part of the intermodal transport chain, which is now costly and non-transparent, more transparent. This can lead to a substantial growth of intermodal transport.
Based on the outcomes of the IMPREND project, the following recommendations can be made:
- at the strategic level: at this level, the shipper/consignee is the most important actor of the intermodal chain. After all the shipper/consignee is the actor that pays for the transport and in general it is the party that pays which determines the choice of modes. However, it is very difficult to influence the decisions of shippers/consignees, which is a very big and diverse group of companies. The main recommendation that comes from the IMPREND project is communication and co-operation, but it remains to be seen if this group of actors can be influenced effectively this way. A better co-ordination of opening times would lead to reduced waiting times, reduced transport times and, eventually, lower costs (and prices). This would be an important improvement of pre- and endhaulage;
- at the tactical level: at this level, the most important actors are the multimodal transport operator and the terminal operator. For these actors, an improvement of communication is the main recommendation from the IMPREND project. A better communication between the various actors involved in intermodal transport and of relevance for pre- and endhaulage should lead to a better understanding of each other's problems and make sure that all activities are geared for one another. As a consequence, the different parts of the whole process will be better linked together which would result in a more efficient organisation of the whole intermodal chain. This could eventually enlarge the share of intermodal transport (more efficient operations > lower costs > lower prices > increase in the use of intermodal transport);
- at the operational level: in this respect, the haulier and the transport operator are the most important actors. The main recommendation from the IMPREND project for those parties is co-operation. Two goals can be reached this way. First, the performance and service level of pre- and endhaulage and of intermodal transport in general can be improved (resulting in a better planning and more efficient operations). Secondly, the costs of pre- and endhaulage activities can be reduced. This could result in lower tariffs for clients and finally end up in an increase in the use of intermodal transport.
The project had two main areas of interest. The first focussed on the development of a common European survey methodology, initially tested in a small number of Community-languages, to provide a common benchmark for comparison with the existing and on-going survey work of both the Member States and commercial data providers. It covered all modes relevant to long-distance travel and paid particular attention to capturing the interchange between them.
The second area was the improvement to the state-of-the-art in sampling schemes for travel diaries in particular this related to weighting and correction methods to make such surveys more cost-effective and their results more accurate.
Based on the empirical work undertaken the project has developed a set of recommendations for the definition of the survey object, for the survey protocol including the survey forms and for the organisation of a uniform European benchmark survey. The recommendations try to balance the need for uniformity, the data quality requirements, the data needs for policy analysis, the costs and most importantly the response burden (for a detailed discussion see MEST Consortium, 1999).
The recommended protocol is a mixed postal/telephone approach, which employs both contact methods to reach their respective audiences.
See http://www.uibk.ac.at/c/c8/mest for the full reports
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