The provision of port services is an important link in
international logistics. Historically, ports have constituted
a bottleneck in maritime transport. Moreover, the quality
of port services has been compromised by the complex
internal port organisation and the considerable number of
bodies that participate in the transfer of goods between
ships and inland transport vehicles. The efficiency of port
services affects not only the port authorities, service
providers and customers, but also the port hinterland
through the multiplier effect on the regional economy. The
problems of port organisation are explained using principal-
agent concepts. The authors then explore the concept
of quality in relation to port services, and discuss certification
of service providers as a means of signalling quality to
their customers. Finally, the accreditation system of the
port of Valencia, Spain, is presented as a model, one that is
superior to the accepted ISO standards, whereby port
service quality and efficiency may be enhanced.
The objective of supply chain management is
to facilitate the processes whereby primary
supply is ordered and transformed so as to
satisfy consumer preferences efficiently. It is
widely known that these processes have been
marked by a continuing shift from the historical
use of open markets to new business coordination
mechanisms between vertically
related market stages, such as those between
producers and processors, and between
processors and distribution systems. This is
true above all for certain manufacturing
industries such as vehicle production, but is
increasingly evident in the agrifood industry
(Boehlje and Schrader, 1996; Poole, 1997).
The successful internationalisation of firms
and markets depends to a marked degree on
the efficient performance of all the activities
connected with transport, storage and distribution.
For the agrifood industry, the cost of
logistics is of paramount importance: the
overwhelming bulk of internationally traded
agricultural products, in volume terms, is
transported by sea.
The analysis of supply chain logistics
merits more careful attention. The use of the
term “chain” is derived from the way the
supply system may be described as a series of
vertically ordered, value-adding activities.
The term “logistics chain” is employed similarly
in order to describe the integrated and
sequential physical and other transport activities
which make the preferred products available
to the final consumer. The port logistics
chain describes those activities confined to
ports and the maritime-land transport interface.