In Section 2, we give an argument on the importance of the role
of decision makers in the planning. On tactical level planning, the collaboration or competition of carriers influence the service level,
the synchronization, and the system performance. In practice, an
independent party manages each hub and leg of a multimodal
transportation network. In the presence of their cooperation, for
instance, a terminal operating company receives the information
on the arrival of a ship or trains early enough to plan the necessary
unloading, transshipment and loading tasks. In addition, the cooperating
carriers can react to disruptions faster, using vehicles,
modes, and resources of each other. Puettmann and Stadtler
(2010) test the idea that collaboration reduces the operational
costs on a chain with one multimodal operator and two carriers
responsible for pre-haul and end-haul drayage. In their scheme,
the three parties do not exchange any information and plan their
own operations, however they iteratively exchange proposals and
their cost effects are compared to the solution without coordination.