The paper was presented at the Polish Logistics Congress “Logistics 2004 – Logistics networks in the integrated European market”. Poznań, May 19-21, 2004.
The rapid growth of trade and international contacts in the Baltic Sea region observed in recent years is a clear signal that new transport solutions are needed to meet the requirements of both the market and ecology.
The concept of a logistics center entered the terminology and development concepts of the Baltic Sea region in the late 1980s, when significant infrastructure initiatives created the need for an integrated approach to transport, connecting its individual branches, operators, services, and financing. A logistics center slowly began to mean a place with a designated area where all activities related to the transport, logistics, and distribution of goods, concerning international and domestic transit, are carried out by commercial operators. A logistics center should have an intermodal character, i.e., provide services using individual branches of transport (road, rail, air, sea, and inland waterway). To ensure the effect of synergy and commercial cooperation, a logistics center must be an independent legal entity. Existing and planned logistics centers in Europe are not connected in any system – their collection is heterogeneous. In recent years, initiatives have emerged at the European level to establish cooperation between centers that exhibit many common features. An effectively operating network of logistics centers can form a kind of backbone for international business, including both small and medium-sized enterprises and sole proprietorships established by truck drivers. Such a network is no longer perceived as “art for art’s sake,” but can directly influence the economy, transport efficiency, and individual logistics centers.
The concept of a network in logistics is not new; many different definitions of this term have already been created:
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A network is a broad industry group whose participants help each other.
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A network depends on the ability and willingness of its participants to cooperate by providing services to each other.
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A network is based on mutual contacts and communication.
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Network participants are committed to mutual cooperation.
The above features of a network are widely known, yet intensive cooperation between participants in the network will be one of several factors influencing the increase of the synergy effect through the development of new “products” and strategies, better use of IT solutions, and increasing the competencies of individual participants.
Strengthening the market position of participants through a network constitutes potential for better, more effective operation in new markets. This also has a positive resonance not only in the economic dimension but also in the sociological one. An additional positive factor resulting from networking is the potential positive impact on the environment through better use of space. For this purpose, coordination of space utilization between all network participants is necessary. Such harmonized actions can bring the desired financial effect to individual enterprises included in the network, as well as the aforementioned positive impact on the environment.
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