En movimiento por un aire limpio

La Confederación Europea de Sindicatos (CES/ETUC) hace un llamamiento a la Unión Europea y a los empresarios para trabajar por un nuevo modelo de movilidad que supere el actual con sus importantes impactos negativos. El actual modelo de movilidad tiene un fuerte impacto social con la progresiva liberalización del sector del transporte, cuya principal consecuencia está siendo la precarización de las condiciones de trabajo de muchos empleados del transporte.

ETUC/CES
Fuente: Wikipedia

Mobility in ports (1): container terminals

Versión en español

Port of Barcelona

Productivity and safety are two fundamental factors in the processes that are being executed in commercial harbours. Productivity because they are installations which basically have to generate benefits if they function correctly, but also safety, because the harbour activities have one of the most elevated indexes of occupational accidents, which have to be corrected with tenacious occupational prevention politics. Security is also potentiated, because the ports are deposits for goods where fiscal and customs inspections are being carried out.

The revolution of containers in cargo transport

(Ver versión en español)

When in 1956 the North American citizen Malcom McLean, owner of a truck company, conceived his first maritime container, I would like to know, if he already imagined the revolution which his design would cause in the transport of goods. The first shipment which was realized with this kind of cargo was made from Newark (New Jersey) to the harbour of Houston (Texas). The first intercontinental crossing goes back to 1966 (New York, Rotterdam, Bremen, Grangemouth). Since then the growth of its journeys has been exponential, and nowadays, the containers which travel through the world are counted in billions. The transport of containers by sea, added up to 13 % of the worldwide shipped traffic in 2012, as most of the products transported by ships are petroleum derivates or bulk freight. (UNCTAD/RMT2012)

Transit places, hypermobility and anonymity of postmodern citizen

Versión en español

Frankfurt International Airport

Globalization proposes an urban model based on the “meta-city” (city of cities), supported by a worldwide web of transport and communication means with megalopolis distributed all over the surface of the world which act as points of intersection in said network.

The anthropologist Marc Augé years ago elaborated a conceptual framework about the space that human beings use, a concept that interested me as geographer. I refer myself to the book “Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of over-modernity. Los no lugares. Espacios del anonimato (una atropología de la sobremodernidad) GEDISA editorial (2008) (1ª edición en 1992)” In this essay the anthropological space is described as a place, where our experiences take place in accordance with the environment that surrounds us.

La globalización de la economía y sus consecuencias en la logística y el transporte.

A mediados del siglo pasado importantes cambios económicos comenzaron a producirse a escala mundial definiendo nuevos modelos de producción y de  intercambios comerciales, todavía vigentes, que han decidido la evolución de los sistemas de transporte y distribución.

Hoy en día se utilizan con naturalidad conceptos que han sido totalmente asumidos en nuestro vocabulario: globalización, internacionalización, deslocalización… Las multinacionales, finalizada la Segunda Guerra Mundial, fueron los principales agentes económicos que promovieron el desarrollo del comercio y las relaciones globales (su propia estructura les obliga a ello). Las multinacionales, por su naturaleza, incentivan un mercado de concurrencia imperfecta. El mercado de concurrencia imperfecta se basa en el comercio entre grandes firmas comerciales o entre sus filiales y la sede central de la multinacional. La tendencia a interrelacionarse entre ellas promociona el comercio y el transporte internacional. Las inversiones extranjeras potencian notablemente el comercio exterior (en España por ejemplo lo vemos en el sector de la automoción.) La inversión extranjera hay que considerarla como un catalizador del comercio internacional en cualquier país. (Más información en Revista de Economía Mundial  año 2000 "Integración económica y comercio internacional". de  J.G. Sequeiros Tizón.) 


Aparecen cambios en los procesos productivos y en la logística.

A medida que fue avanzando el siglo XX los mercados en los países desarrollados ya eran demasiado maduros para las tasas de crecimiento que algunas empresas buscaban. El proceso de internacionalización productiva se había convertido en un elemento esencial para alcanzar esas tasas de crecimiento, de manera que muchas empresas decidieron sacar parte de su proceso productivo al extranjero; es lo que se conoce como deslocalización industrial. La búsqueda de una mayor rentabilidad y la reducción de los costes les obligaban a trasladar la fabricación de sus mercancías a lugares más o menos lejanos, donde la mano de obra era barata, los impuestos bajos y la legislación laboral y ambiental mucho más laxa. Una reducción de los costes productivos y una menor presión social y legislativa les permitían compensar, con creces, los mayores costes que suponía transportar sus productos a los mercados de  las naciones más desarrolladas. La consolidación en el mercado mundial de países industriales emergentes como Singapur, Corea del Sur, Tailandia, China, Taiwán, India, Brasil… propiciaron que muchas empresas establecidas en nuestras latitudes se deslocalizaran para conseguir su supervivencia o para satisfacer las expectativas económicas de sus accionistas. 

Por otra parte, las nuevas técnicas de producción que se han desarrollado con las nuevas tecnologías han conseguido la reducción de los costes de fabricación. Por ejemplo el concepto “just in time” (JIT) supone la fabricación del producto en el momento que se necesita, porque ya tiene un cliente que lo ha solicitado, otro concepto es “just in sequence” (JIS) que permite el montaje en cadena de productos diferenciados en la secuencia de producción y a la demanda del comprador. La reducción de stocks con estas técnicas de producción permite disminuir los costes financieros del capital inmovilizado, de los seguros y de los mantenimientos. Estos nuevos conceptos y técnicas de fabricación que van adquiriendo las empresas han operado una sustancial evolución en la logística y en los medios de transporte, llegando a unos grados de complejidad que muchas empresas difícilmente pueden asumir de manera directa, sin embargo, la logística y el transporte se convierten en elementos fundamentales en los nuevos procesos de producción, aunque no sean propiedad de la compañía fabricante. De esta forma una parte muy significativa de la tensión del proceso productivo pasa de las factorías a las infraestructuras y a los operadores logísticos, que participan plenamente de la cadena de producción con los abastecimientos y la distribución. Este cambio ha tenido efectos colaterales en algunas infraestructuras cuyo ejemplo lo vemos en el incremento de los atascos o congestiones de tráfico cerca de los polígonos industriales o de los puertos.

Actualmente los fabricantes observan con otros ojos el transporte y la logística, pues ya no son sólo unos costes que hay que asumir en las cadenas de abastecimiento y distribución de sus productos, ahora pueden aportar un valor añadido (por ejemplo el tiempo de respuesta a las remesas solicitadas por los clientes) que incrementa la competitividad de las mercancías en mercados cada vez más maduros, donde el precio ya tiene un margen demasiado pequeño para poderlo recortar, los productos cada vez tienen una vida más corta (así no se da margen a la competencia) y los clientes son más exigentes y caprichosos. La economía de escalas que pueden aportar los grandes operadores logísticos: alquiler de almacenes, fletes de trenes multicliente, utilización puntual de material altamente especializado, procedimientos de actuación homologados… reduce ampliamente los costes. La calidad del servicio se consigue con su elevada especialización y flexibilidad, de manera que las fábricas pueden incrementar su productividad. Otro aspecto muy atractivo para los fabricantes es la posibilidad de convertir en sus balances los costes fijos de su actividad logística en costes variables cuando contratan a operadores que se encargarán de ella, de esta forma los costes logísticos pueden adaptarse a las fluctuaciones productivas que a lo largo del tiempo sufren las empresas. El modelo de fabricación postfordista (desarrollado por Toyota) ha impulsado la producción diseminada de los diferentes componentes del producto final - es el outsourcing o subcontratación-, quedando el montaje definitivo del producto para el fabricante poseedor del nombre de la marca. No obstante, la subcontratación no siempre resulta una solución valida para todas las empresas. La necesidad de unos medios de transportes fiables y flexibles es una de las piedras angulares de este modelo de producción globalizado. 


Los cambios en el comercio internacional y los nuevos polos de atracción económicos.

Como ya hemos dicho anteriormente fueron las compañías transnacionales las que impulsaron el comercio internacional, pero no sólo ellas, también las instituciones y los gobiernos se organizaron para canalizar y potenciar esas tendencias económicas. En la segunda mitad del siglo XX se realizaron sucesivas reuniones institucionales para crear las reglas del GATT  y la Organización Mundial del Comercio (WTO) con la finalidad de favorecer la expansión de los negocios internacionales. Se establecieron protocolos, normas y estándares técnicos y jurídicos que promocionaron el comercio.

El desarrollo del comercio internacional se basa en la existencia de grandes polos económicos: americanos, europeos, asiáticos… estos últimos actualmente son los más dinámicos, pero en paralelo al desarrollo de estos grandes polos económicos urbanos se configuraron alianzas a partir de tratados políticos entre los diferentes Estados, que paulatinamente  llevaron a un proceso de regionalización económica. La Unión Europea, el Tratado de NAFTA, Mercosur son ejemplos de estas nuevas regiones económicas, aunque con distinto grado de integración. Actualmente el comercio de los productos manufacturados está perdiendo peso en Europa occidental por la competencia de los productos asiáticos. Esta situación genera unos cambios estructurales que se reflejan, por ejemplo, en el crecimiento de los espacios dedicados al almacenamiento de productos  acabados y fabricados en el extranjero o en tránsito, por el contrario disminuyen los espacios dedicados al almacenamiento de productos semielaborados necesarios para la fabricación de productos finales.

En conclusión, la progresiva interconexión de los mercados, la internacionalización de las empresas, la normalización mediante acuerdos de los términos y los protocolos del comercio internacional, la subcontratación y el desarrollo de las nuevas tecnologías han restado importancia a la actividad fabril dentro de los procesos de producción, o bien la han trasladado a otros lugares del planeta con costes operativos inferiores, por el contrario se ha incrementado notablemente la importancia que tienen las actividades logísticas y del transporte. La aparición del contenedor y el creciente desarrollo del transporte multimodal en estas últimas décadas están obligando a la modificación de los acuerdos comerciales interna-cionales. Las multinacionales han sido los motores de la globalización de la economía, pero no podemos olvidar que  fueron los medios de transporte una de las principales correas de transmisión en este inmenso impulso económico. Sin embargo, cada medio de transporte se ha adaptado, de mejor o peor manera, a los cambios que los nuevos flujos económicos han impuesto en un mundo cada vez más globalizado e interconectado. ¿A quién crees que le ha ido mejor... al transporte aéreo, al marítimo o al terrestre?




Tweet

Otros artículos relacionados:

Logística y transporte: nuevos retos.

Nueva movilidad hacia una mayor equidad social.

Seis objetivos para el desarrollo de un mercado europeo del transporte

"Frenazo" para las infraestructuras de transporte españolas

Six goals for the european transport market development (english version)

Intermodal station "Quatre Camins"

The European Commission puts great importance in its strategy to strengthen the political body, which is the union of the European continent, with the development of a potent infrastructure network to join its vast territory of more than 4 million m2 and a population which already surpassed 502 million inhabitants in the year 2011. The working document:  (White Paper) Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area - Towards a Competitive and Resource Efficient Transport Area System, is the most recent report which I was able to read about European infrastructure. Published in 2011 by the European Commission, this report highlights the importance of transport infrastructures for the economic activity: for job creation, the stimulus of Commerce, the improvement of geographic accessibility and the mobility of goods, services and persons which travel through its territory. I think the mentioned document might be quite interesting because of its proposition to project and plan the European Communities’ vision of the future European transport system concretizing the major operative lines to be developed in the next years, which can be classified in three big blocks:

INFRASTRUCTURES:   
Creation of a European transport market on the basis of the infrastructures project TEN-T, the objective of which is the reduction of the current traffic congestions and a substantial improvement of the accessibility to the whole European territory on a small and medium scale level (continental and regional).

ENERGIES:
Reduction of the big dependability of the European transport system on petrol and the design of new contingencies for the foreseeable scarcity of fossil fuel in the near future (Peak oil). In the report the following fact is pointed out: In 2010 the imports of petrol to the European Union amounted to approx. 210 billions. €.

ENVIRONMENT:   
Reduction of the greenhouse gases in order to minimize their effect on the climatic change.

This document proposes quite concrete actions for each of these three fields for the next four decades (comprising a horizon until the year 2050) which I tried to classify in the following 6 major goals as indicated at the beginning: 

1. Reduction of the greenhouse gases by  60 % before 2050 for the complete transport system, with the milestone to reach a reduction of 20 % in 2030 in comparison to the emissions produced in 2008.

2. Change of the transport model: Development of considerably cleaner vehicles, a strengthening of the collective transport where the individual transport only will be used as the “last mile” of the journeys, creation of high speed train lines and corridors for the rail transport of special goods at medium range, thus enabling a sutureless mobility within the territory with a good intermodality between the different means of transport. A change of the transport model based on the intensive use of technology, not only to improve the transfers between the different modes of transport, but also in order to improve its infrastructures (ITS, SESAR, EMTS, SafeSeaSafety, RIS…) and in order to reach with this model a level of economy of scales that permits the apparition of multimodal and multinational logistic operators.

3. Creation of a multimodal transport network between the major cities of the European Union, with train corridors and motorways, by strengthening the intermodal character of the sea ports as well as of interior waterways and by connecting the high speed train network with the European airport network. The creation of a unique European airspace, the creation of a unique train space and the creation of a “blue belt” for the European network for short distance sea shipping.

4. Implantation of a sustainable urban transport system, by using mobility plans in the cities or in the companies and big public installations; by introducing intelligent transport tickets and by using tariff systems by areas and not by mode of transport, by car-sharing, Park & Ride systems near big connecting stations, by potentiating active mobility (like walking, biking,…) and by harmonizing movements of the commuter traffic in the big metropolitan areas.

5. Maintaining the European Union as world leader for road and labour security, by the development of politics of security, responsibility, accessibility and quality of the services and working places in the transport and logistics sector. The European Union has the objective to reduce the number of traffic victims by half until the year 2020 and to reach 0 deaths by traffic accidents in 2050.

6. Internalization of transport costs. Costs on a global scale with the raising of taxes for energy use and with the creation of a market of the emission of greenhouse gases. For the costs on a local scale (noise, pollution and high traffic accumulation) a “toll” for the use of the infrastructures will be introduced and fiscal adaptations in the sector will be made according to the prerequisite: “who pollutes, pays”. This will be established in two phases: In the first phase until 2016, the taxes applied to the sales of cars with combustion engines will be revised. This means, on the one hand, the application of the regulation of the “Eurovignette” (road tax disc) – “who uses, pays” and on the other hand the modification of some of the tributes (those that allow for it) by highlighting the environmental impact they produce to discriminate positively the cleanest vehicles. In a second phase (between 2016 – 2020) this fiscal policy will be consolidated and the costs for pollution and noise level of the harbours and airports will be included. Obviously this document is a lot more extensive and those interested in its content can access to the original via the link which I mentioned at the beginning.

With the ongoing crisis we are informed “through the grapevine” by the media of new reductions and fiscal changes applied to different aspects of our mobility (a right our governments should preserve for us). Many of those measures are more than simply rumours, provoked by economically burdened Governments, and are part of a strategy designed by Brussels to achieve the change of model for our transport and mobility system, which leave little manoeuvring space to the national governments (such as for example delay of measures like the introduction of the “Eurovignette” (Euroviñeta), in the case of Spain, or the modification of the contribution levels which can be applied in different fees). We’ll have to be more and more aware of what is happening in Brussels, as what is decided there, will be more important than what is being legislated in any of the capitals of the member states of the European Union.

Tweet

Another posts:

New values for shared mobility

2012 the European Year for Active Ageing. The Safe Mobility an Intergenerational Challenge

What kind of european policies promote the intermodality in the transport?

What kind of european policies promote the intermodality in the transport?

In Europe the main hub of short sea shipping (SSS) is Rotterdam

For years, the European Union has been trying to potentiate intermodal transport. The policies which emerged in the year 2001 were orientated in passing part of the goods transport from the road to the rail. However, time showed that it made no sense to force reality, as a mistrust and competition between these two modes of transport was generated which prevented the creation of the necessary synergies for a sound development of intermodal transport. Comodality has been an intent to advance with the idea of a transport system that makes use of all the available transport modes in an economic and environmentally beneficial way. The focus of these policies is no longer in which mode has to be potentiated, but in the analysis of the itineraries and in efficient and effective modes which allow for a profitable and sustainable transport no matter which mode has been chosen. 

Over the last 10 years we have had a number of European directives which have tried to potentiate intermodal transport though at the moment not very successfully. The directives 96/48CE and 2001/16/CE indented to activate the inter-usability of the transeuropean high speed rail system and the conventional rail. In these directives the conditions for a secure and continued train circulation were laid down; with a competitive performance and without big technical or operative reglementary differences between the European countries. The attempts we have had in Europe to make the international markets of the rail transport more transparents have not received sufficient support from all the states of the European Union. Recently the European Commission has disciplinarily prosecuted various states for this reason. The first package designed by the European Union consisted of 3 directives which obliged to open competition in the goods rail market. The time for implemention expired in 2003. This package of measures obliged the member states to guarantee the right of access to the international services of the transeuropean net of terrestrial transport (TEN-T). Already in the year 1996 the European Community took the decision 1692/96/CE due to which the transeuropean transport network was created and 30 projects were declared of “European interest”. 

The investment projects TEN-T proposed by the European Commission which affected Spain were the following:

Project 3: Axes for high velocity railway in the southwest of Europe 

Project 8: Moltimodal axes Portugal / Spain – rest of Europe

Project 15: GALILEO network. Tecnology for navigation via satellites for the positioning and synchronisation of various services in Europe.

Project 16: Goods railway axis Sines/Algeciras  - Madrid – Paris. (Over the Central Pyrenean Crossing) 

Project 19: Inter-usability of railways of high velocity in the Iberian Peninsula. The main objective was to overcome the problem of the specific width of the Iberian rails to the construction of new rails with the European width. 

Project 21: Short Sea Shipping (marine highway). West Europe, south-east Europe and Mediterranean.

If we revise these projects, we will see that most of them have been accomplished only partially, some of them even have a considerable delay, but nonetheless they are fundamental in the structuring of the intermodal network of the Iberic Peninsula. 

The new European decree 913/2010, of 22.09.2010, defines the European railway corridors and its administrative organs. In this decree I would highlight the definition that is made of the supervisory boards of the European corridors, which superpose themselves over the stately administrators of the railway infrastructures, in order to achieve the necessary coordination in the inter-usability, a step forward in the potentiating of the European railway transport and intermodality. Of all the routes mentioned in the attachment of the decree, route no. 4 (via the Atlantic Ocean) and route no. 6 (via the Mediterranean) have to be pointed out, which have the 10.11.2013 as deadline for their beginning of operation. Both affect the peninsular territory and are in consonance with the projects of the European Transportation Network.  

Since 2004 the multi-sector association FERRMED, an initiative of the private sector, has been working with the objective to improve the goods transport in Europe. This associations has a variety of proposals, for example the introduction of standards in the railway network with regard to: Voltage, width of rails, the loading gage of tunnels and bridges, the ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System) for indication and traffic administration, etc. Furthermore, they propose the design of new concepts for locomotives and wagons and even make recommendations for technological improvements for the automatic connection of the wagons. All these are aspects that open up new possibilities for new automated solutions in the administration of intermodal terminals. This lobby has achieved the support of the European Union and of various member states. The big commitment of FERRMED is the creation of a railways axis which will reach from Scandinavia, over the areas of central Europe of Rhine and Rhone, to the limits of the Western Mediterranean. In the area of Spain it is one of the principal defenders of the Mediterranean corridor.  

The European Union is updating anterior investment projects TEN-T, in which a big part of the claims the FERRMED association has raised are included. Let us hope that the European Commission will implement those projects supported by the member states that are best adapted to those parameters of economic efficiency and environmental benefit, which justify such an important investment in times of crisis. In Spain, as always, the big problem will be to fight with the inter-territorial tensions to reach Brüssel with an agreed on statement. 

Tweet

Another posts:

New values for shared mobility

2012 the European Year for Active Ageing. The Safe Mobility an Intergenerational Challenge