The development and improvement of regional transport systems is one of the many tasks that regional authorities should address. The approach to solving this largely depends on the level of development of a given area, as well as the logistical awareness of the authorities’ representatives. Certainly, regional authorities can play a significant, stimulating role in the development of a region’s logistical assets. One example that fully confirms this statement is the concept of actions implemented by Regione Emilia Romagna (RER) in Northern Italy. The article is the result of research work carried out as part of the INTERREG III B CADSES Community Initiative project with the acronym CORELOG (“Coordinated Regional Logistics”). The CORELOG project, implemented on the initiative of the Emilia Romagna region, brings together partners from Poland, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia, and Greece.
Transport and logistics in the Emilia Romagna Region
Freight transport and logistics are treated as a priority in RER due to their enormous impact on the economy, the environment, and the sphere of social life. The ability to deal with transport challenges in regions requires the identification of diverse, complementary intervention actions. For this purpose, RER uses an approach that combines research and planning work, serving to define tasks that directly affect the sphere of production and transport in the region. The basis for this philosophy of action is the statement that the development of cooperation in the logistical activities of enterprises and the coordination of such activities can yield better results than those achieved by enterprises individually. The current implementation of coordinated logistics initiatives and the development of related IT tools for transport constitute strategic methods of supporting the competitiveness of enterprises, mainly by reducing their logistics costs. The development of more efficient supply and distribution chains through coordinated actions of regional authorities can have a positive impact on the industrialized areas of the region by reducing freight transport intensity, caused by better utilization of loading space and limiting the number of empty or only partially loaded vehicle trips. In the last 5 years, the authorities of the Emilia Romagna region have promoted and financed several actions and pilot projects, implemented in cooperation with private enterprises and their associations. The goal was to carry out experimental logistics initiatives for enterprises to improve their competitiveness, efficiency, and the rationalization of their logistics processes. Table 1 contains the topics of these projects defined in keywords. These actions are concrete examples of good practices that can be successfully replicated by other enterprises operating in Emilia Romagna and other Italian regions, as well as in other countries. The described works are not isolated manifestations of the regional authorities’ activity, but the result of implementing a holistic approach promoting sustainable development by changing the trend of regional authorities using infrastructure policies as a tool to stimulate economic development, as well as a high degree of coordination between sectoral strategies in the area of economic development, transport, and spatial planning.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 5/2007.