Seaports in Europe have evolved over centuries, adapting their mode of operation to external and internal conditions. Political changes, great geographical discoveries, wars, colonial expansion of European states, economic development, social crises, technical and technological progress, or the industrial revolution are just examples of external factors affecting the functioning of ports. They stimulated their development or degradation, and influenced their functioning and organization through legal regulations. On the other hand, ports themselves have created and continue to create their own organization and the scope of implementation of individual substantive and spatial functions, influencing the shape of legislation, as well as their place and role in the transport and economic system of the state, region, or city.
In recent years, the internal environment of ports has expanded to include local groups (municipal, regional, economic self-governments), thereby strengthening their position in contacts with the surroundings. The external environment is subjected to specific pressure by the seaport environment, which results in regulations and operating principles that allow for its unhindered development and the realization of functions and tasks defined by its development strategy. Currently, “a seaport is a socio-economic space with a multifaceted impact on its surroundings, connecting sea with land in transport processes through technical and technological equipment, in which mutually penetrating, interdependent, and linked substantive and spatial functions related to trade turnover and the movement of people are carried out.” It should be stated that for the development of a seaport in today’s Europe, it is essential to:
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create an internal environment appropriate for its development, functioning in a systemic manner and aimed at achieving the common goals of the port and its surroundings
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adopt by the port’s functional segment the concept of “every change that brings a benefit is possible,” which opens it up to changes and innovations
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create a port development strategy focused on gaining a competitive advantage in the market of port, forwarding, and logistics services, implemented within land-sea transport chains and logistics chains
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ensure sustainable development of substantive and spatial functions, presented in Figure 1, allowing the port to transition to higher generations of its functioning.
Modern seaports are divided into 3 generations in terms of their level of modernity and susceptibility to innovation. This division does not result from the size of the port, its location, or its management system. Instead, the classification of a port into the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd generation is determined by the following categories:
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cargo structure – in this respect, the basic determinant of a port’s belonging to a specific generation is the share of containers, ro-ro units, and specialized cargo in port turnover
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scope of substantive functions – whether the port is limited to traditional transshipment and storage services (transport function), or whether it also performs, and to what extent, industrial, commercial, distribution, or logistics-distribution functions
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characteristic features of organization and management in the sphere of management and operations
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characteristic features of service and production activities
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scope of tasks of the managing entity or management structure
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nature of market organization and the applied development strategy
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spatial organization.
The main determinants for classifying a port into a specific generation, presented in Table 1, confirm earlier observations regarding the role of the port environment in its development. The way the port’s functional segment is organized and operated, created by its owners and employees, is the decisive factor in its development. It is from its atomization and reluctance to innovate that a passive operating strategy results. Conversely, cooperation and the pursuit of change lead to the development of new functions and new techniques, leading to a change in the cargo structure, an expansion of the range of services to include logistics services, and the development of the logistics-distribution function. This pays off in the acquisition of knowledge (know-how), which is so necessary for promoting and implementing new solutions that increase the port’s competitiveness.
The article comes from the “Logistyka” magazine 1/2011.