The level of transport congestion at landside port terminals has been affected by the increasing sizes of freight containers in their volume. Neagoe, Nguyen, Taskhiri, and Turner, (2017) point out that port reaction has consequences on the environmental and socio-economic costs suffered in port hinterlands. The writers further suggest that, in local seaports, these expenses may have repercussions for expansion of the region and the ability of supply chains to optimize and retain value. Standard port reactions usually adopt a slim focus on operations at the terminal or on the possible merits carriers, and terminals can achieve through integration and collaboration (Neagoe et al., 2017). Thus vital to adopt a supply chain viewpoint and evaluate how information systems can be employed to stabilize opposing user needs.
It is essential to create a supply chain that seeks to transfer goods from the production spot to the consumption spot as cheaply and as quickly as conceivable. Jaffe (2016) elaborates that the proficiency in realizing this objective will allow for the topographical relocation of wholesale and offshoring of elementary assembly and industrial. As a sequence of integrated and linked establishments distinguished by successive inter-organizational, interdependence affairs are vital in determining the level of seamlessness and integration (Jaffee, 2016). The writer further warns that interorganizational tie in the sequence tends to deviate from the vision. The tie is the affiliation between the drayage trucking operations and shipping container terminal that is best explained as a type of intermodal disintegration.
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Transportation of freight cargo corresponds to the GDP of the United States of approximately 9.5%. And hence sustains the export and import of nearly $3.6 trillion trade internationally. Thus, it is imperative that the transportation system of national freight is operated and designed competently. Wang, Nozick, Xu, and Gearhart (2018) developed a mathematical theory to approximate domestic and international cargo movements across the truck, rail, and ocean means. The researcher’s theory can be used to study the imposition of new tariffs and variations in policies of operation. Their model assimilates a user balance-oriented logit dispute for selection of a path with an optimal system dispute for network operations of the rail. Furthermore, the model directs to the elaboration of a distinctive key technique that is revealed in an analysis of a large-scale concentrated on all United States import/export and intercity cargo containerized freight.
The United States freight transportation system has been globalized and compressed by the existence of the shipping container since the 1950s. The container conveys cargo in international trade, and it fits and utilizes within the prevailing transportation infrastructures of railroads, trucking, and shipping (Heins, 2016). In this style, it attaches them into a seamless network of logistics worldwide. Heins (2016) further states that this process occurs at ports, deep within national territories and in ocean shipping. He further says that it depends on prevailing infrastructure as the network of container movement is molded by the geography and history of a country. Heins explains this in the American framework, scrutinizing trucking and inland waterways, container terminals and also the infrastructures of freight transport.
The perceptions of distribution networks and intermodal logistics have made incorporation of the supplier system for inland freight critical for a seamless container seaport system. Dry ports that occur within the maritime system are vital in determining the competitive and performance policies of seaport containers (Jeevan, Chen, & Cahoon, 2019). Due to the significance of the interdependence between container seaports and dry ports, Jeevan, Chen, and Cahoon state that dry port operations have an impact on the competitiveness of container seaport. Thus essential that development focuses on enhancing seaport capacity, seaport performance, increasing seaport trade volume, refining nearness to seaport-hinterland, and growing service changes for seaports.
In the present environment for port business, the resilience of a port is of utmost significance for continuity of a supply chain. The outcome of increased incorporation of seaports into supply chains poses a possibility to disrupt the chain of supply. Loh and Thai (2016) advocate that seaport management should incorporate quality management theories, continuity of business management, and risk tolerance with the aim of intensifying its resilience and continuity of the chain of supply. Seaport management model would thus influence its market reputation and financial health (Loh, & Thai, 2016) positively. The theory has numerous academic and managerial repercussions as it provides profound understandings on the development of policy.
Disruption occurs due to different factors such as natural events, technical, and human, yet, efforts are being focused on improving methods to plan seaport systems. John, Yang, Riahi, and Wang (2016) are of the opinion that most of the data available to design these structures are extremely difficult and uncertain to get because of the figure of events with imprecise and vague factors. Resilience has been identified as a significant feature of maritime operations and is thus described as the ability of compound systems to recuperate fast after harsh disruptions (John et al., 2016). Therefore, it is predicted that minimizing disruptions could offer an elastic tool to execute policies that would influence the resilience of the seaport system.
The consequences met by electric grids propose smart grids that will synchronize its functions with more significant strategies in the conveyance. The network platforms assist the smart grid in transmitting its data and meter readings (Mondragon, Coronado, & Mondragon, 2015). Furthermore, regarding the transport system, there is a necessity to attain a decrease of traffic accidents and congestion of roads, hence, the consolidation of the intelligent transport systems that promote the growing benefit of electric cars. The researchers insist that there is a need to identify a convergence podium able to sustain services for future statistics for traffic related to smart grid functions and intelligent transport systems. They cite an example of wireless sensor network theory incorporated into a convergence network platform that uses a seaport terminal scenario. The outcome of the model of the suggested network affirms the appropriateness of wireless sensor network. Hence, the wireless sensor network is effective in the spread of traffic data related to readings of the meter that require efficient management policies and energy consumption in industrial environments.
The Battery-based Energy Storage Transportation is another technology that deliberates transmission of electricity through rails as a form of storage rather than exploiting the transmission lines. Thus, grid operators focus on the specific geographic region of the grid and offer the grid with a more elastic reduction to congestion (Sun, Li, Tian, & Shahidehpour, 2017). From a study that the researchers conducted, the results show that the Battery-based Energy Storage Transportation technology can minimize the charges of electric distribution by transporting the power from low locational marginal price areas to high locational marginal price areas. Moreover, it minimizes the demand for obtaining extra transmission, alleviates congestion of the transmission, and heighten the use of prevailing space on freight trains after termination of coal power plants.
A nuclear attack by a terrorist group could lead to affect the world economy as well as have a devastating impact on Americans especially if the attack if from a seaport. There are several ways in which terrorist could get themselves a bomb (Ozguven et al., 2015). The primary challenge is in detecting the bomb from a seaport. It is no consolation that the United States is using intelligence, international cooperation, and technology among other ways to prevent terrorist attacks. Hence, Congress has issues to include in the protection of maritime and seaports by thwarting foreign nuclear material, allocating adequate funds for seaport protection, and curbing economic effects of potential attacks.
After the air attacks on US soil, air traffic and maritime transportation were halted for a number of days. Therefore, not only aircraft but ships heading to the US were stopped from reaching the country (Palestini, & Agostinis, 2018). The reason behind this was that, if airplanes could be used as weapons of mass destruction, so could ships. In the days that followed, more attention was shifted to air security than maritime security. But this divided attention did not eliminate the truth that the seaports were also vulnerable to terrorist attacks. The two writers point out that the US Congress noticed the vulnerabilities and passed bills those different agencies started enforcing. But the main challenge is how to improve the port security policies, mechanisms, and programs that were formulated back in 2001. Therefore, there is a need to take into consideration the economic effects of terrorist attacks, best security practices, and response mechanism to any challenges.
In as much as seaports have not been attacked but this is not a cause for the authorities to take its security lightly. Zhang and Roe (2019) came with a technique that would assist authorities in the implementation and gain critical analysis of terrorist infrastructure. The researches came forward with a conceptual model that aimed to determine the relations and complexities among the inconsistent aspects recognized in the present seaport security zone, namely seaport transport risk; seaport security systems; application of the Core Set of Indicators and European Union container seaport competition, and integrating the conceptual model.
There are some situations where a fanatic might use a minor craft to assault a seaport target. Therefore, it is vital to place several varieties of sensors to guard seaport targets against such an onslaught. Sensors are not completely dependable (Yan, & Nie, 2016). The subsequent detector location poses a challenge and is expressed as a nonlinear program of a binary integer that minimizes the anticipated destruction amount instigated by the attack. Whereas this security strategy could be important in securing a small seaport, but it could not be possible in large commercial seaports.
Terrorist critical infrastructures are an omitted outline to comprehend the increase of global political terrorist violence. This technique of combating terrorism exploits essential proportions found in safety and resilience. Moreover, the method uses analytics from infrastructure protection, systems engineering, and terrorism studies (Zoli, Steinberg, Grabowski, & Hermann, 2018). The researchers further argue that there is a need to introduce the concepts of Terrorist Critical Infrastructure, contrast the features of the concepts with those of standard infrastructures and initiate a topology of terrorist infrastructures. They further state that the organizational skills are essential in clarifying the resilience, durability, and prevalence of the majority terrorist organizations. These factors can help to understand thus enable authorities to prepare in advance thus make seaports safe.
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