Source: adapted from Notteboom and Rodrigue (2005).

Continuous and Discontinuous Hinterlands

The direct hinterland of a seaport (or another terminal) is rather continuous. The more distant hinterland features tend to be discontinuous in nature, since the density of hinterland origins or destination of port cargo is lower and because of the accessibility effect of transport corridors and inland terminals. The service areas of a container load centre by rail and barge takes the form of sets of overlapping service areas of individual inland terminals. The size of each of the inland service areas depends on the service frequency and the rates of intermodal shuttle services by rail and or barge, the extent to which the inland terminal acts as a gateway and the efficiency and price of pre- and end-haul by truck. By developing strong functional links with particular inland terminals a port might intrude in the natural hinterland of competing ports. "Islands" in the distant hinterland are created in which the load centre achieves a comparative cost and service advantage in relation to rival seaports. This observation increases competition among ports of the same port system as the competitive margins of hinterlands become increasingly blurred.

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