The picture on the cover is one of Pierce County Container Terminal at the Port of Tacoma. It was supplied by Evergreen Marine Corp., and is available from Dunelm public related limited (http://www.dunelmpr.co.uk) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I. Writing a doctoral thesis shows many similarities with container handling: it is a process which requires optimisation of the number and quality of a vast number of inputs, it is subject to a whole lot of factors of uncertainty, one needs to make output choices nearly constantly, and congestion (of to do’s) and capacity shortage (of time) are recurrent phenomena. It is a process whereby obviously one does not start from zero knowledge, but where one appeals to what one has learned before, and most of all where the contributions and useful remarks from many people are included. A first and most inspiring source of knowledge as well as support in difficult moments has of course been my promoter, Prof. Dr. Eddy Van de Voorde. His useful comments above all helped shape and structure not only this thesis, but also me as a transport economist. Various research projects with him aroused my interest in transport economics, and in the maritime and port sector in particular. In the course of this particular research, he introduced me to many contact persons and pointed at useful sources of input. The respect and fame he enjoys in the worldwide port and maritime environment opened doors that would otherwise have remained closed for sure. It has always been a pleasure to have him as a ‘superior’ as well as a promotor: at the good moments, but also at the more difficult ones, where a chat about for instance soccer provided a marvellous kind of distraction. Next, special thanks go to Prof. Dr. Hilde Meersman. She fully complemented my promotor in providing useful directions for research and inputs. The many constructive discussions always brought me new insights… although it was not always easy to order round plans and structures as borne in my mind at that moment. She did a great job however in supporting me, to the thesis content as well as morally, in refining the content of the thesis, and in increasing its readability. Further, Prof. Dr. Gust Blauwens, as chairman of the Department of Transport and Regional Economics, first of all granted me the opportunity to engage into this research. Further, i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS through the entire process of conception and production, he has guided me into industrial economics research in transportation. I am very grateful to him for the opportunities I got, and I have always enjoyed being at the service of the Department. Fortunately for me, e-mail was invented, which made my quite frequent communication with Prof. Dr. Trevor Heaver (University of British Columbia, Canada) a lot easier. Sending texts to Canada and having them read and commented on no more than one week later would have been impossible without e-mail. But it would especially have been impossible without Prof. Heaver’s effort to help me in structuring my thoughts and texts. His extensive comments made me question every word I put on paper, which was sometimes hard at the first moment, but which was the right way of doing things in the end. Moreover, he introduced a closed- door policy during his last visit. Closing gates is something that maybe also some terminals should do in order to process a backlog in outbound yard containers: it is a wonderful way of freeing-up capacity, and not having this process disturbed by side-phenomena. Dr. Jan Blomme is at the same time internal and external to the Department of Transport and Regional Economics, which was of double advantage to me. I had close contacts with him as a lecturer at the Department, but I especially benefited from his position as head of the Research Department at the Antwerp Municipal Port Authority, from where he supplied me with many real-life views on port-specific matters. Prof. Dr. Raymond De Bondt provided plenty of industrial-economic insights and references and highly contributed to the theoretical background of the thesis. His constructive remarks were of great help to focus on the conceptual matters that were of relevance. Two professors I learned to know first through Prof. Dr. Eddy Van de Voorde’s extensive network and later on even better through TRANSPORTNET, were Prof. Enrico Musso (University of Genoa, Italy) and Prof. Dr. José Viegas (Technical University of Lisboa, Portugal). They have in common that they live in countries which are a lot warmer than Belgium, which encouraged me to keep on working on the Ph.D. research, even when temperature here was exceptionally higher than we are used to bearing, and when the weather invited more to go outside than stay behind a computer. Both professors have in common an unmatched knowledge of the maritime and port sector and of transport economics in general. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The formal and informal contacts we had, closeby during meetings and at longer distance via e-mail, supplied me with many transport economics insights, directly or indirectly of use for my Ph.D thesis. Mr. William Masschelier and Prof. Honoré Paelinck, both port consultants, introduced me to the daily processes taking place in the port environment, and this way, they contributed a lot to conceptual as well as factual elements in my thesis. Mr. Masschelier never left a chance unused to clarify to me terminal matters which I mailed him. Prof. Honoré Paelinck even used the ultimate technique to transfer his knowledge: inviting me on a boat trip… be it that is was not a container ship. I also want to give my special thanks to Prof. Dr. Ann Verhetsel. Although port economics is not her immediate field of research, it was thanks to her that I was granted the opportunity to start working at the Department of Transport and Regional Economics in 1998. Two very interesting research projects with her as a promoter further aroused my interest in transport economics research, and prepared me for the ‘real’ work. The fruitful discussions and her moral support during the course of my writing the Ph.D have no doubt contributed a lot to its success. Further on at the Department of Transport and Regional Economics, I would like to thank my immediate colleagues, Tom Pauwels in particular, for their conceptual contributions and for the support they gave me, logistical as well as moral when research did not move on as I had liked it to, and for their understanding when I had one of the (hopefully not too frequent) difficult moments… At the Department and the Faculty, I would also like to thank all secretaries who offered their logistical support, especially Ms Patsy Geurts, Ms Henriette Horoba and Ms Simonne Wouters. For the practical lay-outing matters, I would like to thank Frederik Hulstaert, who helped design the cover to this thesis, and made it as attractive but in the meantime sticking to business, two characteristics which perfectly match the container-handling business. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Last but not least, I’d like to give very special thanks to my immediate family and family-in- law, my friends, and my wife Annick. They all, and especially Annick, know what it is to have a husband / son / son-in-law / friend who tries to finish a Ph.D. Spare time was often shared with the computer instead of with family members, and holidays were not what they used to be before. Working on the Ph.D was often a valid and unvoluntary argument not to help with household tasks… Above all, I must admit that I still admire my relatives’ immediate understanding in my using this argument. I promise I will compensate in the near future, and as a start in this, I would like to dedicate this book to my wife Annick. But I am sure all of them will also remember some nice moments in the writing process, like me working in an antique chair near the coal fire at the Bakkershof, and of course my obtaining the degree of Doctor of Applied Economics as an ultimate pinnacle of some years of hard work. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I................................................................................................................................1 I.1. Rationale for the thesis ...............................................................................................2 I.2. Setting for the expansion of cargo-handling companies ............................................4 I.2.1. The chain environment .......................................................................................5 I.2.2. Local terminal specifics......................................................................................7 I.2.3. Policy intervention..............................................................................................7 I.3. Hypotheses and Objectives.........................................................................................8 I.4. Definition and limitation ............................................................................................9 I.5. Methodology.............................................................................................................13 I.6. Text Outline.............................................................................................................16 v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER II. ...................................................................................................................... 19 II.1. Rationale for the chapter....................................................................................... 20 II.2. Co-operation