News

In the recent 'Containerspecial' of the Port of Rotterdam, Michiel Nijdam of Smart Port wrote a column on the use of ultra large carriers vs the current crisis. A clear and daring vision!

Erasmus Smart Port Rotterdam, het havengerelateerde bedrijfsleven en de gemeente Rotterdam breiden de samenwerking uit. Dertien grote ondernemingen en organisaties nemen plaats in de nieuwe Raad van Advies van SmartPort, het haven en maritieme kenniscentrum van de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (EUR).

In this lunch meeting René de Koster and Debjit Roy will give a presentation on container operations. For the abstract "Container Terminal Operations: Design Considerations and Decision Models" click here.

Dr. R.A. Zuidwijk is bij besluit van het College van Bestuur van 26 oktober 2010 benoemd tot hoogleraar in de Faculteit Civiele Techniek en Geowetenschappen aan de Technische Universiteit Delft, om werkzaam te zijn op het vakgebied Goederenvervoer en Verkeersnetwerken.

Lunch meeting devoted to the remarkable decree on the 1996 CMI fire as issued last spring by the court of The Hague. In this decree the Rotterdam city council was held responsible for not maintaining of, amongst others, the fire safety regulations at the container storage company CMI. Because of limited space you are, if you wish to attend, kindly requested to send an e-mail to: Ingrid Waaijer

Port Community Systems are an interesting object of study. Two RSM students, Irina Romochkina and Sascha Treppte, have studied these systems and finalized their studies in September CUM LAUDE.

Presentation by Panagiotis Ypsilantis and Susan Niesen on the ULTIMATE PROJECT Presentation Summary1. Utimate project introduction - Efficient Multimodal Hinterland NettworksThe ULTIMATE project is focussed on developing and evluating new concepts for the design and operation of efficient multimodal hinterland networks. There are several parties that participate in this project; EUR, TUE, ECT, Port of Rotterdam, Modality, Portbase, KEYRAIL, Port of Amsterdam, Brabant Intermodal and NV Regio Venlo. The Dryport concept is based on the idea that not all industrial and economic activities have to take place close to the seaports, but that good infrastructures and inland nodes can help accommodate trade growth, and bring regional development inland. The view of dryports and the development of hinterland networks have been seen as a new dimension for competition from a seaport's economic point of view, according to Notteboom & Rodrigue (2005). The extended gate concept incorporates some of the natural consequences of the dryport concept, such as integral network design and direct operational control in the transport network, but it puts more emphasis on coordination and control of the flows in the multimodal hinterland networks. In this presentation the Extended Gate concept will be analyzed as implemented by the European Container Terminals (ECT) through their extended Gateway Services (EGS). Moreover, the four work packages of the ULTIMATE project will be introduced. 2. The legal position of Terminal Operators in Hinterland networks The subject of the presentation is the legal position of terminal operators within the legal framework of intermodal transportation. The risk profile and liability exposure of terminal operators changes fundamentally when the duty to carry goods is added to the traditional duties such as stevedoring, storing and customs related operations. Carriage of goods is regulated by mandatory law, from which no deviations can be made in a contract, whereas the other services are not all governed by mandatory law and the terminal operator may use his freedom of contract to shape his legal position through contractual arrangements with his customers, sub-contractors and others. Depending on the role the terminal operator has, the applicable rules vary which influences his legal position.In transport contracts are often related, so the wider network of contractual relations has to be taken into account as well, because the legal position does not only depend on the relation towards contractual parties but also on the relation with third parties.3. Design of Efficient and Sustainable Port - Hinterland Transport Networks In this presentation the main considerations under port-hinterland container transport network design will be discussed and one quantitative model, related to extended gate services will be presented; that is the “Freight Transport Service Network Design: The network operator perspective”. In the common network design formulations the preferable nodes and links are selected assuming that the associated costs are known and that each party concerned with the network, seaport terminal operators, inland terminal operators, hub operators and multi-modal carriers act individually. The majority of business models related to the Extended Gate and Dryport concepts suggest that there are network operators who control seaport and inland terminals as much as some of the intermodal connections between them, so it follows that each part of the transport chain is not operated individually. When considering the network operator’s perspective the links, nodes and services of the hinterland network, controlled by the network operator, must be designed such that they attract flows in a competitive environment with alternative transport solutions. We formulate the service network design as a bi-level mathematical program. The objective of the first level is to maximize the revenues of a network operator, while minimizing, in the second level, the variable and fixed costs applied to the users of the network.

The theme of this Conference is the tension, if not direct conflict, existing between uniform EU law and conventions of uniform private law to which EU member states are party, but the EU itself is not. As is illustrated by a number of cases brought before the ECJ in recent years, courts in member states are increasingly confronted with conflicts of duty in cases where uniform EU law and conventions of uniform maritime and transport law are of simultaneous application. For courts in member states it may sometimes appear as if the only way in which to comply with EU law is by breaking their country’s obligations under international treaties and vice versa. Conference "Tension between universal and regional unification of private law" Rotterdam 16 & 17 February 2012

Rotterdam, September 2011 --- Seaports nowadays operate in a highly competitive market. The time of monopolies is gone as the ‘hinterland’ is accessible for all competitors. Clear differentiation is needed to gain competitiveness. Therefore, a marketing strategy is increasingly important for all ports in order to communicate this differentiation. However, while they can add a lot of value, marketing strategies for ports have so far not been researched to a large extent.

This seminar will highlight the issues that differentiate workforce scheduling at container terminals from other scheduling problems; describe several mathematical models for producing a yard staffing plan that promotes fairness across employees in the scheduling of overtime; and present preliminary results based on data inspired by the Beirut Container Terminal Consortium (BCTC). Contact information:Prof. dr.ir. René de Koster: Email

On August 22, 2011 Martijn van der Horst joined the research community of Erasmus Smart Port Rotterdam as a researcher in Port Economics.

Met de benoeming van Harry Geerlings tot bijzonder hoogleraar "Governance van Duurzame Mobiliteit" is de aanstelling van de 5e havenhoogleraar een feit.

Rotterdam, July 2011. Business and government both need more information of higher quality about a container, its cargo, location and status during transport from origin to destination in order to increase operational efficiency and effectiveness. Higher quality information should enable more advanced risk assessment, thereby increasing security in the supply chain, according to an international research project consortium launched last month, and carried out in part by researchers and PhD students from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM).

On June 6th a special meeting of the Academic Board of Erasmus Smart Port Rotterdam took place. In this meeting the Smart Port Professors and Academic Director presented their research priorities and PhD/Postdoc projects to two of the sponsors of Erasmus Smart Port Rotterdam. On the photo you see from left to right: Harry Geerlings (Erasmus School of Social Sciences), Frank Smeele (Professor at Erasmus School of Law), Cees Jan Asselbergs (Managing director Deltalinqs) , Rob Zuidwijk (Scientific Director Erasmus SmartPort), Adriana Gabor (stand in for Professor Rommert Dekker, Erasmus School of Economics/Econometrics), Bart Kuipers (Business Director SmartPort) , Hercules Haralambides (Professor at Erasmus School of Economics/Econometrics), Tijn Folmer (External advisor), Henk de Bruijn (Director Port of Rotterdam)and Rene de Koster (Professor at Management of Technology and Innovation Department, RSM).

SmartPort Community Lunch June 15th 12.00, room T3-29. Presentation by Prof. dr. Frans van den Bosch of RSM on 'The strategic value of the Port of Rotterdam for the International competitiveness of the Netherlands'.

The presentation of Bart Kuipers is based on a policy report written for the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment called 'Van Mainport naar wereldstadhaven' (in Dutch).
Read the report (pdf)
View the preentation (pdf)
Send Bart Kuipers an e-mail for more information

Erasmus SmartPort Rotterdam—kortweg SmartPort—is een initiatief van het Havenbedrijf Rotterdam, de gemeente Rotterdam, Deltalinqs en de Eramus Universiteit om de band tussen haven en de Erasmus Universiteit te versterken. SmartPort wil zich ontwikkelen tot de primaire kennispartner voor het bedrijfsleven, zowel in onderwijs als onderzoek.

Professor F. Smeele
Good news from the port front: there are strong signs that SmartPort, the virtual knowledge and expertise centre in the area of port research and education is not going to become a paper tiger. The late Professor Jo van Nunen, in his lifetime Professor of Logistics at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, was one of the founding fathers. He saw the port as a big research laboratory located in the back yard of Rotterdam and strived to get SmartPort of the ground. In this matter he neither lacked vision nor ambitions. Jo van Nunen saw the Erasmus University as the key candidate for supplying knowledge to the port and as the institute par excellence for port related education.

Is India the New China? Early February Erasmus University is sending a mission of managers and researchers to the EAST to try to get a foot in the door. Some of them may already find themselves at familiar grounds whereas for others this may be their maiden voyage to India. Are there opportunities to look out for or are we still too early?

The unrest in Egypte continues. As the Suez canal has been of inestimable value to the economy for many years the current developments are bound to have an impact. Read more:

Harry Geerlings published the article “A new method for assessing CO2-emissions from container terminals: a promising approach applied in Rotterdam” in the Journal of Cleaner Production. He co-authored the article with Ron van Duin of Delft University of Technology.

The fragmentation of interest groups in the Dutch inland shipping sector impede the sector’s growth, conclude industry experts in a round table discussion in the journal Undertaking! (Ondernemen!). Harry Geerlings, lecturer in Public Administration, moderated the conversation.

On December 6, 2010, Erasmus University, the Rotterdam city government, the Port of Rotterdam, and the association of port companies Deltalinqs signed the agreement to cooperate in Smart Port. The signing marked the launch of Erasmus Smart Port Rotterdam, a new centre of excellence for maritime and port-related research and education.

A new multi-disciplinary initiative seeks to serve as the main knowledge partner of the Port of Rotterdam. Its ultimate goal? To make Rotterdam the best port in the world.

A new multi-disciplinary initiative seeks to serve as the main knowledge partner of the Port of Rotterdam. Its ultimate goal? To make Rotterdam the best port in the world.

In his PhD thesis entitled Leader Firms: The value of companies for the competitiveness of the Rotterdam seaport cluster, Michiel Nijdam looks at the port from the company perspective. He sees that the leader firms in the Port of Rotterdam have an important role to play when it comes to the competitiveness of the port. Understanding the way these leader firms act, will increase the possibilities to strengthen the port cluster.

Join us at TransNav 2011 in Gdynia! It is the last chance for answering on the 9th International Symposium on "Marine Navigation and Safety of Sea Transportation" TransNav 2011, organized jointly by the Faculty of Navigation, Gdynia Maritime University and the Nautical Institute, which will be held from 15th to 17th of June 2011 in Gdynia, Poland.

Outstanding alumni of Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) were honoured with awards from the Dean George Yip during the School’s Lustrum Reunion held on October 9, 2010. Awards were presented to five alumni for their clearly demonstrated leadership in business, among whom Hans Smits, CEO of the Port of Rotterdam.

The Port of Rotterdam Authority (“Havenbedrijf Rotterdam”) has requested a team from the Strategy programme to conduct research. The research will focus on developing a framework to assess and monitor the strategic importance of the Port of Rotterdam for the international competitiveness of the Netherlands.

Innovation is high within the field of logistics, says René de Koster, Professor of Logistics and Operations Management, as he outlines here the challenges that lie ahead for researchers and business managers alike.

Innovation is high within the field of logistics, says René de Koster, Professor of Logistics and Operations Management, as he outlines here the challenges that lie ahead for researchers and business managers alike.

Scheduling means allocating limited resources to the many activities that have to be done within an organisation. Applications of scheduling theory can be found in multiple manufacturing and service industries, where production, transportation, distribution, procurement, information processing, and communication efforts are restricted by limited resources. In his dissertation Scheduling with Time Lags, Xiandong Zhang focuses on a subset of scheduling problems which are characterised by time lag constraints, where time lags refer to the time delays between the execution of two consecutive operations of the same activity. Time lags can represent transportation delays, activities that require no limited resources, or intermediate processes between two bottleneck machines or procedures. The objective of this research was to develop efficient algorithms for solving these particular scheduling problems. Here, the word efficient means that these algorithms have relatively short running time and may result in relatively short job sequences.

The dissertation Access Regulation for Naturally Monopolistic Port Terminals: Lessons from Regulated Network Industries of Enzo Defilippi analyzes the characteristics of access policies implemented in the telecommunications, electricity supply, natural gas and railways industries. It uses the lessons learned from these experiences to propose a model suitable for the port industry. Its relevance resides in the importance of the subject for the formulation of development strategies in developing countries, and the lack of previous studies in the field.

Due to rapid developments in technology and information systems, the speed and the nature of the flow of goods in supply chains have changed drastically. Today, to meet the increased customer expectations, companies need to offer larger assortments, shorter delivery times and better quality for lower prices. As more and newer products are developed and introduced to the markets, the average product life cycles got shorter. Obsolescence risk as well as demand uncertainty has increased significantly. The higher dynamism of markets made the costs more volatile and difficult to predict. As a result of these changes in the surrounding environment, inventory systems became more dynamic.

Acciaro’s dissertation Bundling Strategies in Global Supply Chains focuses on the application of the business practice of package sales to the logistics industry. Although the use of package sales, also known as bundling, is a pervasive business practice, its use in the logistics and ocean transportation industries has been rather limited. As a consequence of the increasing complexity of the ways we move products and raw materials from factories to warehouses and final consumers, producers and retailers increasingly demand door-to-door prices for bundles of logistics services, similarly to the way passengers demand simple airline tariffs.

Coordination of decisions on supply chain operations between firms can improve supply chain performance, according to Bas Verheijen’s dissertation ‘Vendor-Buyer Coordination in Supply Chains’. Verheijen studied the impact of resources of limited capacity, such as trucks, on supply chain operations and costs. Transport costs are studied in detail, as transports costs may be significantly reduced by improving supply chain coordination. Furthermore, he shows how a simple form of incentive alignment between firms in a supply chain can lead to near-optimal supply chain operation.

Professor Dr. Ir. Jo van Nunen, ERIM fellow and one of the most influential and best-loved professors of Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, passed away suddenly on 12 May 2010 in Vancouver, Canada. He was 64 years old.

Port container terminals are by nature intermodal facilities. When containers come into a port or rail facility by either boat or train they must be transferred to another mode (usually a truck) for transport to a final destination. Trucks transporting containers to and from a port or rail facilities are not always equipped to serve multiple jobs in an efficient manner. The business of transporting containers from port or rail terminals a short distance to customer locations is termed drayage. The research in Jordan Srour’s dissertation examines routing in drayage operations as a means to improve efficiency.

Eelco van Asperen has defended his thesis entitled ‘Essays on Port, Container, and Bulk Chemical Logistics Optimization’ on November 18. His promoter is Prof.dr.ir. R. Dekker, Professor of Operations Research, Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University. Other members of the doctoral committee are Prof. dr. ir. U. Kaymak, Prof.dr. H. Haralambides and Prof.dr. S. Voß.