Modeling incentive strategies for landside integration in multimodal transport chains

A significant bottleneck in port regionalization through multimodal transport chains is expensive and time-consuming inland transport. To be competitive, it is crucial for a port authority to build an effective transport system and develop collection-distribution abilities. Considering shipper preferences, this study proposes a pricing model to describe the markets of competing seaports and discusses several incentive strategies that may or may not bring mutual benefits for shippers and port authorities in the multimodal transport chain, such as the corridor investment strategy, subsidy strategy, and combinational strategy. Based on two adjacent ports in China, a comparative analysis is carried out for evaluating the effects of different strategies. The results show that the corridor investment strategy depends on unit investment capital for improving transport convenience. It is necessary to adopt a differentiated subsidy strategy based on transport distance when considering the subsidy strategy; however, there is a constraint on the subsidy level. In the combinational strategy, shippers’ preferences for transport convenience and low inland transport cost have a significant impact on a port authority’s total revenue.