Point 1 is about infrastructure and reducing the distance to the
nearest railway station that can handle the goods of the customer.
Point 3 is more on the operational side, making organisations more
efficient and optimising the transport routes.
Point 2 is especially interesting since transhipment is a delicate
issue. The main advance in recent years is the standardisation of
loading units, most prominently the introduction and the propagation
of the ISO container. Transhipment is not only a matter of
cost, but also of trust, and it has to be fast, easy and reliable.
There are different possibilities for transhipment. For large
amounts of goods, a gantry crane can be used in most instances. It
is fast and it also allows the storage of goods on relatively little
space. There are disadvantages however, such as the high capital
expenditure, and also, in connection with rail, the problem of the