Inland port. A rail or a barge terminal that is linked to a maritime terminal with regular inland transport services. An inland port has a level of integration with the maritime terminal and supports a more efficient access to the inland market both for inbound and outbound traffic. This implies an array of related logistical activities linked with the terminal, such as distribution centers, depots for containers and chassis, warehouses and logistical service providers.

• An intermodal terminal, either rail or barge that has been built or expanded.
• A connection with a port terminal through rail, barge or truck services, often through a high capacity corridor.
• An array of logistical activities that support and organize the freight transited, often co-located with the intermodal terminal.

• Land value. Many deep sea terminal facilities have limited land available for expansion. This favors the intensification of activities at the main terminal and the search of lower value locations supporting less intensive freight activities.
• Capacity and congestion. Capacity issues appear to be the main driver of inland port development since a system of inland terminals increases the intermodal capacity of inland freight distribution. While trucking tends to be sufficient in the initial phase of the development of inland freight distribution systems, at some level of activity, diminishing returns such as congestion, energy and empty movements become strong incentives to consider the setting of inland terminals as the next step in regional freight planning.
• Hinterland access. Inland locations tend to be less serviced by intermodal transportation than coastal regions. Through long distance transport corridors, inland ports confer a higher level of accessibility because of lower distribution costs and improved capacity. These high-capacity inland transport corridors allow ports to penetrate the local hinterland of competing ports and thus to extend their cargo base. In such a setting, the inland port becomes a commercial and trade development tools that jointly increase imports, exports and intermodal terminal use.
• Supply chain management. In addition to standard capacity and accessibility issues in the hinterland, an inland port is a location actively integrated within supply chain management practices, particularly in view of containerization. This takes many forms such as the agglomeration of freight distribution centers, custom clearance, container depots and logistical capabilities. The inland terminal can also become a buffer in supply chains, acting as a temporary warehousing facility often closely connected to the warehouse planning systems of nearby distribution centers. Purchasers can even be advantaged by such a strategy since they are not paying for their orders until the container leaves the terminal, delaying settlement even if the inventory is nearby and available.

• Satellite terminals. They tend to be close to a port facility, but mainly at the periphery of its metropolitan area (often less than 100 km), since they mainly assume a service function to the seaport facilities. They accommodate additional traffic and serves functions that either have become too expensive at the port such as warehousing and empty container depots or are less bound to a location near a deep sea quay. A number of satellite terminals only have a transport function transshipping cargo from rail/barge  to trucks and vice versa, as is the case for the ‘container transferium’ concept of the port of Rotterdam or the Gateway Access Point (GAP) concept in Belgium. Satellite terminals can also serve as load centers for local or regional markets, particularly if economic density is high, in which case they form a multi-terminal cluster with the main port they are connected to through regular rail or barge shuttle services. For gateways having a strong import component, a satellite terminal can also serve a significant transloading function where the contents of maritime containers are transloaded into domestic containers or truckloads.
• Freight distribution clusters (load centers). A major intermodal facility - load center - granting access to well defined regional markets that include production and consumption functions. It commonly corresponds to a metropolitan area where a variety of terminals serve concomitantly intermodal, warehousing, distribution and logistics functions. These tend to take place in logistics parks and free trade zones (or foreign trade zones). The inland terminal is thus the point of collection or distribution of a regional market. The more extensive and diversified the market, the more important is the load center. If the load center has a good intermediary location, such as being along a major rail corridor, then freight distribution activities servicing an extended market will be present.
• Transshipment facilities. Link large systems of freight circulation either through the same mode (e.g. rail-to-rail) or through intermodalism (rail-to-truck, or even rail-to-barge). In the later case, the inland terminal assumes the role of a load center. The origin or the destination of the freight handled is outside the terminal's market area, a function similar to that of transshipment hubs in maritime shipping networks. Such transshipment terminals are often found near country borders in view of combining administrative processes linked to cross border traffic to value-added logistics activities. Although this function remains marginal in most parts of the world, ongoing developments in inland freight distribution, where the scale and scope of intermodal services are increasing, are indicative that transshipment services are bound to become more prominent.

• Site and situation. Like any transport facility of significance, an inland port requires an appropriate site with good access to the rail or the barge terminal as well as available land for development. Access to an area of significant economic density, such as large population base, is of importance since it will be linked to the level of import and export activities handled by the inland port. Transportation remains the most significant logistics cost, underlining the importance of an accessible location. Several inland ports also have an airport in proximity which can help support a variety of freight activities.
• Massification. The hinterland massification opportunities offered by inland ports are associated with lower transport costs and a better accessibility. It takes place over two interdependent dimensions. The first concern the massification of flows between the port terminal and the inland port through a high capacity corridor. Intermodal rail and barge services represent the dominant means over which this process is achieved. The second relates to the consolidation and deconsolidation of cargo flows depending if it concerns inbound or outbound logistics.
• Reconciling cargo flows. Since most long distance trade (and some domestic) is supported by containerization, there are numerous instances where a regional market imports more than it exports (or vice-versa). Under such circumstances, an inland port must provide the physical and logistical capabilities to insure that empty containers are repositioned efficiently to other markets if local cargo cannot be found. This can take the form of empty container depots and arrangements with freight forwarders to have slots available for repositioning. Whether there are imbalances in container flows or not, an inland port must insure that the inbound and outbound flows are reconciled as quickly as possible. A common way involves a cargo rotation from imports activities where containers are emptied to exports activities where containers are filled with goods. For container owners, let them be maritime shipping or leasing companies, a rapid turnover of their assets is fundamental and will secure a continuous usage of the inland port. Effective repositioning and cargo rotations strategies insure higher revenue for both the container owners and the inland port operators.
• Trade and transactional facilitation. An inland port can also be a fundamental structure promoting both the import and export sectors of a region, particularly for smaller businesses unable to achieve economies of scale on their own. Through these, new market opportunities become possible as both imports and exports are cheaper. The setting of a Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) is also an option to be considered as a trade facilitation strategy. The functional pairing of inland ports is a transactional strategy where an inland port is activity seeking agreements with other inland ports so that reciprocal supply chains are established or reinforced.
• Governance. The way an inland port is owned and operated is indicative of its potential to identify new market opportunities and invest accordingly. In many cases, the commitment of a large private investor such as a terminal operator or a real estate developer can be perceived as a risk mitigation strategy in addition to provide expertise in the development of facilities and related activities. Sections of an inland port can be shared facilities (e.g. distribution centers) so that smaller players can get involved by renting space and equipment. This also applies to the appropriate strategies related to each stage in the life cycle of an inland terminal from its construction to its maturity where its potential has essentially been taped off.

• The first are satellite facilities in the vicinity of port terminals. They assume the conventional role of accommodating activities decongesting port operations, such as container deports, as well as performing customs clearance.
• The second type concerns inland facilities located at major metropolitan areas to provide better connectivity to the port terminals along the coast as well as to support the logistics of a growing internal consumption market. Significant dry port development is taking place on the Yangtze river all the way up to the upper stretches near Chongqing, some 2,400 km upstream from Shanghai. Intermodal rail development faces the challenge of the strong focus of the existing rail network on passengers and dry bulk commodities. As the Chinese economy moves towards a more extensive internal market intermodal rail and barge traffic will increase, and so the usage of inland ports.
• The third type are border facilities that play the function of custom clearance, consolidation and deconsolidation of cargo as well as emerging trans-modal functions of linking different systems or circulation. The setting of Asia-Europe rail connections may promote this function.