Multimodal transports
Most shipments cannot be delivered to the consignee by just utilizing one mode of transport. The shipment will be a pick-up by a milk run truck and the long haul and mostly a delivery by milk run truck as well. Using different modes and resources from different providers requires coordination of the different parts of the supply chain. [Clausen 1998, pp.128-130; Vahrenkamp 2005, S. 299-301]
Hubs are connecting the different modes of transport. In general each mode can be combined with another one but practically air and sea transport would not be found connected directly in one hub. [Vahrenkamp 2005, pp. 284-288]
This does not mean these modes do have not a straight relationship.
Sea-Air transports are very common when importing FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) from Far East to Europe but both terminals, sea port and airport, are not in premises but, e.g. in Dubai, a huge sea port is closely linked by trucking services with a highly frequented international airport. [Vahrenkamp 2005, pp. 299-302]
Nearly all international transports using sea, air or rail are multimodal transports.
Use case 3 will describe the task, activities, participants and their role within an example of a multimodal air transport.
