If those transport agents are now involved in an intermodal freight
transport service, then the overall performance will be higher due
to the synergies created by and the reduction of waste obtained by
the freight forwarder.
Assuming that first, each transport agent is being deployed at
their maximum performance, second, that synergies are maximised
and, third, that waste (inefficiencies) is reduced to zero (or to
the minimum), then such assumptions would con-substantiate
a situation where transport agents would be delivering the
maximum possible overall performance. This performance is called
the theoretical performance (right bar in Fig. 1), where the theoretical
performance corresponds to the maximum performance
attainable by an intermodal freight transport service.
However, diverse factors, further explanations are provided in
later on, may create losses of synergies or waste between the
transport agents and, in this way, may preclude the achievement of
the theoretical performance. Hence the maximum performance
attainable in the real world is always inferior to the theoretical
performance. This performance shall be known as the best possible
in the real world performance (second right bar in Fig. 1). This gap
between the theoretical performance and the best possible in the real
world performance (Gap 1 in Fig. 1) is called Friction Gap that
corresponds to the level of friction. The Friction Gap cannot be
eliminated by the freight forwarder because it is generated by
properties that are intrinsic to the transport agents and, thus,
outside the scope of the FF’s area of influence. In order to reduce the
friction gap the transport agents should work together to eliminate
the sources of friction, for example, investment in interoperable
equipment, alignment of processes, and the like.
Calling upon the freight forwarders, it should be noted that they
all are not equally skilled. Different freight forwarders follow
different processes of production of intermodal freight transport
services and as such, they are likely to obtain different performances
from the same set of dual systems. The actual performance