ANALYSIS OF THE POSSIBILITY OF REDUCING EXTERNAL COSTS OF TRANSPORT WITHIN LAND-SEA TRANSPORT CHAINS ON THE EXAMPLE OFZACHODNIOPOMORSKIE VOIVODESHIP, POLAND

Abstract

Land-sea transport chains constitutea key partof the Europe’s economy, asa significant part of its trade is carried out usingsea transport. Transport, storage,or delivery processes carried out withinthese chains are characterized by specified economic and technical efficiency, which often does not take into considerationthe external costs these processesgenerate. Therefore, there is a need for further changes in the European land-seatransport chains, the aim of which should be a further reduction ofthe negative influenceof transport on the society and the environment, in accordance with the assumptions adopted under the EU's sustainable development policy.The article examines theland-sea freighttransport chains in termsof the EU'ssustainable development goals on the example of ZachodniopomorskieVoivodeship(ZV), Poland. The region was selected owingtotwo key factors. First, the transport chains acrossthe region are typical for many European areas. Second, the region itself has experiencedintensive development of the Transport, Shipping and Logistics (TSL)sector and a number of changes in freightflows for several years.The main goal of the article was to identify the possibility of reducing external costs resulting from the use of combined transport solutions in ZV. Two case studies were analyzed for this purpose. In both of them, the assumed effect was the reduction of external costs of freight transport in ZV. The potential reduction of external costs generated by cargo transport in ZV was estimated on the basis of the European methodology in terms of the amount of external costs generated by individual modes andmeans of transport. The research showed that the implementation of combined transport in ZV can bring measurable benefits to the region. The analyses also allowed for the identification of technical and organizational activities that are crucial for ZV and make it possible to reduce negative transport effects.

Keywords

• transportation system
• land-sea transport chains
• external costs
• sustainable development
• transport management
• transport infrastructure