Intermodal Transportation
Quintessence, Legal Challenges & Impact on Current Transportation Insurance Schemes
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Intermodal Transportation was initially launched in Europe as technical innovation in order to speed up cargo handling by unitization of general cargoes: it was eventually achieved from palletization in Sweden to the carriage of goods in containers in the United-States of America. Accordingly, the credit as for the commercial and technical expansion of containerization is due to the United-States in the sixties. Thanks to the initial risky undertaking done by Mclean (Sea-Land) and Matson, the commercial basis of Intermodal Carriage of Goods was successfully established. Another aspect which is worth considering is that already from the early stage great investments were required; that is to say high costs for initial testing in coastal trades. Besides, a large fleet of sea-going vessels was needed, high capital-intensive cargo handling equipment, sophisticated port facilities and automated container terminal accommodating large sea-going container ships were needed. The container transport development prompted special documentation requirements and many other container related commercial innovations. Intermodal carriage of goods inevitably led to the pressure for simplification and standardization in the following areas: automated cargo-handling gear, increased size of trucks, larger bridges, through-rate structures, electronic documentation, new custom procedures and many legal aspects of International Trade. Nowadays, the main concern for academic researchers, experts and professional executives working with International Trade issues remains the broad variation in regimes and limit of liability which apply to Intermodal commercial transaction.
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About the Book
Transportation technologies in the field of unitization of goods, which culminated in the advent of containerization, have led to the subsequent development of intermodal transport featured by the integration of the following modes of carriage of goods: airways carriage, carriage by sea, inlands waterways, railways, and truck services. Whereas the technical, commercial, and economic aspects of the international intermodal transportation have been adequately addressed in scholarly publications, the legal regime related to the liability of the intermodal carrier is still unpredictable, quite unreliable, and does not respond to the requirements of the intermodal transportation for the purpose of the promotion of the global economy. At present, transport in carriage of goods means getting goods delivered from the producer to the consumer. The process would more likely involve an international intermodal carriage. The unpredictable, inadequate, and uncertain liability regime in international carriage of goods, as referred to previously, has a significant impact on the insurance schemes available in intermodal transportation. As a consequence, the insurance industry has been coping with conflicting laws and regulations while settling claims arising from frequent and high capital-intensive risks in the international intermodal carriage of goods.
About the Author
The author is an academic researcher in maritime studies and international commercial law in the UK. He has been working with intermodal transportation issues for the last twenty years in the Nordic countries, France, Germany, and the UK (England). He is also working as senior executive in the field of strategic logistics in Stockholm. He is actively engaged in the promotion of the international trade through entrepreneurship. Finally, he supports charities promoting both education and classic cultural values and preserving the environment.