Extended Gate Concept for Maritime Automobile Terminals

摘要

The article is focused on the role of a maritime automobile terminal in finished vehicle logistics (FVL). Different drivers that force the management of a maritime automobile terminal to find new solutions in accommodating the increased flows of vehicles are described. The analysis of the maritime automobile terminal at Koper indicates the need to further expand the storage area and its delivery zone to support regular clients from the automotive industry. The main research goal of the paper is to elaborate and describe the model where an external storage platform under port’s operation might be used. On this basis the analysis of current inbound and outbound flows is elaborated. The model of Extended Gate Concept (EGC) for a maritime automobile terminal is presented as an option to serve increased outgoing flows of finished vehicles. With proper infrastructure development, established inland connections and secured information flow the presented EGC model can be adopted at the observed maritime automobile terminal. Nevertheless, obstacles hindering EGC implementation play a crucial role in the model implantation, thus the final consent should be given by the relevant stakeholders in FVL.