The Hinterland of a Transport Terminal

Two fundamental concepts reconcile ports and the markets they service. Transport terminals are within a system of freight distribution which includes the notions of foreland and hinterland binding imports and exports activities and the geographical spaces they service. Each transport terminal has its own hinterland, representing a set of customers (manufacturing and retailing activities) with whom it has transactions. These transactions involve movements of freight (or people in a marginal way) that at some point will be transshipped by the terminal. Movements are either originating or are bound to a space that can mainly be categorized as the main hinterland and the competition margin:

• The main hinterland (or fundamental hinterland) illustrates an area where the terminal has a dominant, if not an exclusive, share of the flows. It is traditionally the core market area of the terminal where accessibility is the highest. It is possible for other terminals to compete over the main hinterland, but this is likely to be done at a notable disadvantage or in the case where a terminal offers a very poor level of reliability.
• The competition margin represents an area where a terminal can be competing with other terminals. The competitiveness becomes a matter of differential accessibility, costs and quality and reliability of service.

On the above figure terminals A and B are competing over two clients in their competition margin. An island within the hinterland of another terminal can also exist, mainly due to either a privileged relationship between the terminal and a client and/or because of an efficient inland distribution system serviced by a specific transport corridor.