INTERMODAL SERVICE - SYSTEM APPROACH

Introduction: Transportation services may be described in systemic categories. Intermodal freight transport is a practical expression of the system approach to transport. Development of the intermodal transport system has brought about the need for the comprehensive grasp of transportation processes. Intermodal transport operators manage the whole transportation service organization process. Hence, a question arises whether the service offered by an intermodal transport operator may be interpreted as a complex system service. Systemness of contemporary products and services consists in that their value for clients is predefined by their place in the whole system of products and/or services as well as by the network of their users. The network language, occurring in this paper, is connected with the development of the notion of network, one of the inspiring ideas in organization and management science of the recent years.

Methods: Literature on the intermodal freight transport issue has been analysed by the present author for the purposes of this paper, with a view to the developing idea of marketing of system products. Within the adopted interpretative paradigm, qualitative / quantitative research was used. Case study is used, among others, to interpret a particular situation, in a way that the subsequent description appears as the research result and may be recognized as valuable contribution to the existent knowledge. The aim of the paper is to highlight, following the research results, the necessity to treat the service offered by intermodal transport operators in system categories. Such systemic interpretation points both to the multitude of components of the service and to the arising opportunity for comprehensive solution of the clients' needs and expectations.

Results: The outcomes reveal that the service offered by an intermodal transport operator may be recognized as the complex systemic intermodal service. They contribute to the knowledge of intermodal transport and serve as the stepping point for the development of the concept of systemic marketing in logistic services.

Conclusions: Proper determination of the systemic essence of the intermodal service constitutes the starting point for the identification of the client's problems as well as for the choice of offered solutions, both in the context of essential and additional values. Due to this reason, the management of an intermodal service creation and delivery has the nature of network management, and the values offered by an intermodal service are conditioned by material elements, without which the provision of the service in accordance with the client's expectations cannot be realized.