The paper was presented at the Polish Logistics Congress “Logistics 2004 – Logistics networks in the integrated European market”. Poznań, May 19-21, 2004.
In logistics, the natural environment in which all flows of information, raw materials, materials, and finished products take place are logistics networks formed by mutually overlapping diverse supply chains. Like any network, a logistics network has its nodes where supply chains meet, changes in flow directions occur, transshipments, splitting or consolidation of loads, changes of operators, owners of goods, means of transport, etc. take place. These nodes are warehouses of logistics operators, distributors, cross-docking platforms, transshipment terminals, ports, etc. Finally, they are logistics centers – the nodes most predisposed to host the aforementioned logistics operations.
European logistics centers have developed in various ways, and their genesis often dates back to distant years when decisions favorable to their development were made. The growing importance of logistics services, the need to mitigate the effects of transport activities, and the globalization of the economy prompted European countries to adopt policies supporting the development of logistics centers. This period, which began in the mid-eighties, continues, and the effects in the form of completed investments are already visible. We observe a clear division of Europe related to the construction of logistics centers. The line of this division was the economic systems that competed with each other after World War II. Also in the field of logistics centers, the free-market economy has shown its advantage. Logistics centers were established in Western Europe, and today Central and Eastern Europe is catching up in this area.
Characteristics of open logistics centers
The definition characterizes a logistics center as a spatial-functional facility along with infrastructure and organization, in which logistics services related to receiving, storing, distributing, and issuing goods are performed, as well as accompanying services provided by business entities independent of the sender or recipient.
When speaking of open logistics centers, we mean the provision of logistics and accompanying services by them to all interested senders and recipients on the basis of free competition. These are, therefore, public-type centers where independent operators settle, while the role of the management is to provide them with conditions for conducting business. This formula also includes providing conditions for the activities of production and commercial companies that generate demand for logistics support. The formula of an open logistics center understood in this way is, in reality, a type of business park in which companies belonging to various sectors of production, trade, and services are located.
The adoption of this formula is the result of numerous observations of the implementation of investments in logistics centers, which were successful primarily where investment areas were also settled by production companies gathering their suppliers around them, or where an industrial park with a sufficiently large number of manufacturing enterprises had previously been established next to the logistics center. Another distinguishing feature of open logistics centers is the intermodal transport infrastructure existing within them, which appears there most often as a result of the implementation of transport policy, under which governments support the construction of transshipment terminals. The diagram of a logistics center is shown in Fig. 1. It should be added, however, that there are also examples in Europe of logistics centers built by private investors, which also feature intermodal transshipment terminals.
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