The Effects of Intermodality on Transport Routes Choice from West African Ports to Landlocked Countries

The paper studied 5 transport corridors in West Africa, from the ports of Abidjan, Cotonou, Lagos, Lomé, and Tema, to the landlocked countries (LLCs) of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. The study found 15 transport routes available from these ports to the LLCs. It used two modes of transport with their respective transport costs as variables influencing shippers in their choice of corridor route. In regards to the modes of transport, the study chose the unimodal road transport and the intermodal transport as the combination of the rail and road transport, with a projection of the cargo volume demand in 2023 from the LLCs. In addition, a survey conducted on the Togolese corridor with the aim to find from users’ perspective the adequate intermodal terminal location, identified the city of Mango as an ideal host. As for the transport cost analysis attached to each of the modes of transport, the results of this study revealed that in the case of the unimodal road transport, shippers from Burkina Faso would rather choose Tema port in Ghana as optimal route, while shippers from Mali would rather choose Abidjan port in Ivory Coast, and shippers from Niger would choose Cotonou in Benin as the optimal route. Consequently, the study also found that the added parameter of the intermodal terminal of Mango on the Togolese corridor would change the routing habit of the LLCs shippers. In fact, with this parameter in line, the Togolese corridor would be optimal in terms of transport cost minimization for the Niger and Burkina Faso shippers. Based on these findings the study highlights the benefits of the intermodality which it presents to the policymakers.


Introduction
In recent years, a number of reports have noted that inefficient transport supply chain of cargo and high logistics costs in Central and West Africa have negative effects on trade. These are hindering growth and poverty reduction in these regions more so than in most other parts of the developing world (Arvis J.-F., et al., 2010) [1]. The transport corridors of coastal countries endowed with port facilities play a key role in the development of Landlocked Countries (LLCs). These transport corridors are critical economic links between community groups of same or other geographical regions. When a landlocked country intends to undertake international trade activity by using ports, geographical restrictions force the country to rely on a port located within the territory of a coastal country. Therefore, the country faces transport costs and risks occurring within the neighboring transit country. These geographical restrictions, costs, and risks are determinant factors in the choice of the transport route by shippers for convenience sake to ship cargo.
Over the past few decades, transport corridors have received particularly close attention, while contributing to growth and regional integration efforts in Africa.
Of recent, several reports noted that transport corridors play key roles in regional integration in Africa. African Union programs such as NEPAD and the programs developed by the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) all place priority on enhancing interconnectivity and facilitating trade. They do this by focusing on transport corridors as microcosms of integration and spatial development on the continent. Thus, inefficient and over expensive logistics and transport corridors have negative effects on trade and are hindering growth and development. These negative factors hinder landlocked countries and promote isolation, driving up the prices of imports, and reducing the competitiveness of exports and businesses in West and Central African countries (Nathan Associates, 2013) [2]. Depending on the circumstances, transport corridors are by nature either competitive or supplementary to each other. In the case of the West African corridors, there is significant competition between the corridors as they do serve the same countries. Based on the report issued by ATWA (2015) [3], these transport corridors are categorized into divisions, such as the transit corridors and the intra-regional corridors. The first division connects a seaport or gateway to LLCs, while the second division crosses several countries on the latitude, from west to east (the Abidjan Lagos Corridor for example). A transit corridor normally serves one coastal country and then competes with other regional corridors for transit traffic to the landlocked countries. They serve as routes for regional trade.
The centre of the present research is found with the first division of corridors, namely the transit corridors which are basically used to transport cargo designated for other countries and are usually bounded by a border intersection at one end and an international gateway at the other. Covered by this research, the network of the five selected physical transport corridors in West Africa is con- The remainder of this paper is organized in the following way. Section 2 discusses the review of the literature. Section 3 presents the data and methodology used to attain the results in Section 4, where transport corridors costs analyses are conducted. The paper concludes in Section 5 with some recommendations toward policymakers.  [7] argue that successful and efficient ports are often those that are effectively connected to their economic hinterlands by adequate and effective transport corridors. The present review of literature points out to the increasing importance of the connectivity at both a quality and quantity level between the port and its own hinterland in order to be competitive in this modern era of transport supply chain.

Shippers Route Based Choice
With the rapidly emerging transport networks, the choice of a chain, rather than a port, becomes more critical for shipping companies, logistics service providers and shippers (Notteboom T.E., & De Langen P.W., 2016) [10]. Scholars have been advocating investigating port choice in a global setting considering the total transport chain instead of just one of its components. Throughout gathered literature, the apparently two main decision variables influencing shippers in the choice of port to call to, are the costs and the efficiency in transport supply chain servicing. The land-leg is often more costly than ocean transport and becomes a differentiating factor in port selection. Still, Tom V. & Cathy M. (2016) [11] found that cost and land transport systems and service levels appeared to play a dominant role in the port selection process.
The attraction of a port to its hinterland relates to the port capacity and mainly to its hinterland transport cost. As noted by Michele A., et al. (2017) [12] ports competing for throughput and of which hosted countries share common  [21] estimated that exporters in East Asia who were able to achieve a 1% reduction in their shipping costs could realize a 5% to 8% increase in their market shares.
Almost identically, a later study of operational efficiency in the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) corridor used a gravity model based on tariff reduction to estimate that a 1% reduction in transport costs would produce a 5% expansion in trade according to (Padeco Consultants, 2004) [22].

Freight Routing and Cost Minimization
Several contributions can be found on freight routing and costs minimization,

Transport Costs Minimization and Intermodal Terminal
Localization Literature Use of a Qualitative Approach: Survey

The Intermodal Transport Stakeholders
The intermodal transport industry is characterized by multiple decision makers who need to work in collaboration in order for the transport system to run smoothly. According to Jencek P., & Twrdy E. (2008) [31], the process of development or building an intermodal terminal should be discussed from the viewpoint of the three stakeholders such as the users of the terminal, investors/terminal operators and the community (see Table 1). According to Cathy Meanwhile, Harper D.V., & Evers P.T. (1993) [33] indicate that non-users of intermodal transport have a worse perception of its performance than users.

Qualitative Approach Used to Localizing Intermodal Terminal
It seems dubious to not take into account practical considerations including Table 1. Intermodal stakeholder and interests.

Stakeholders Aim
Terminal users (transport operators, forwarders, consignors and consignees) Their aims and goals can be conflicting. First, they want minimization of the transport cost consisting of the cost of the transport service and the value of the transportation time. Next, in some cases, the reliability and the frequency of the services are even more important than transportation time. The services offered by the terminal and the connection with other transport modes are two additional criteria for the user; Terminal owners/operators (Private sector) They are more concerned with the terminal financial viability. Terminal possibility to expand and infrastructure capacity are important decision factors; Community as a whole Their concern is primarily with the effects of the developing/building of an intermodal terminal on the environment, congestion, and employment.  [35] used an approach that aims at facilitating the planning process of regional logistics systems in general and the evaluation process of intermodal terminal locations in particular.

LLCs Imports & Exports Demand Data
The data used in this study, are obtained from various West African countries Chamber of Commerce and the PMAWCA (2016) [39]. Table 2 shows the cargo demand in million tons from the 3 LLCs. The data information on the corridors distances (see Table 4) and the average transport cost (see Table 5) are respectively obtained from Google map, and the Borderless. The research will refer to the basic indicators for evaluating the corridor performance of five countries, The research forecast the cargo volume flow for the next 10 years (from 2017 to 2026). To attain this forecast, the researcher proceeds by simply calculating the rate of evolution by variation period of n and then the overall average evolution rate which is both mathematically presented as followed: Calculation of Rate Evolution by variation of year, G t : Rate of evolution by variation period of (n).
1 G t : Rate of evolution by variation period from (n) to (n + 1).
Gn t : Rate of evolution by variation period over (n) period. n: number of variation period.
From the precedents mathematical calculations, we obtain the forecasted results of the cargo demand in million tons from the 3 LLCs, presented in Table 3 which starts from the year 2017. Therefore this study is using the year 2023 as a benchmark.

Alternatives Available Corridors Route to Shippers
Consideration is given to the transport system between an origin and destination (OD) pair in the model. The study assumes that the traffic demand is generated from major commercial cities (capital cities) of each of the three LLCs. This, due to the fact of unpublished traffic volume from other potential important commercial city centres of the studied LLCs. The 15 alternatives available corridor routes, involve three LLCs, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, and five major ports, including the ports of Abidjan, Cotonou, Lagos, Lomé, and Tema ( Figure 1).  Instead of transport mode comparison, we are studying the selection of alternative corridors to route the containers by using different ports. A route is considered as from a point origin to a point of destination (OD) irrespective of the transport mode. Table 4 summarizes the distance of the corridors between the five respective ports (Origin) and the major commercial cities of the LLCs (Destination).
A comparison overview of the distance from O to D is given in Figure 2 [41] concluded that distance and transport prices and individual port efficiency play a significant role in determining a port's market share. Figure 2 illustrates the length of the corridors from origin to destination.

Average Transport Cost within Corridors
The average transport costs in USD per ton per kilometer are represented in Table 5. This average transport price mechanism is calculated based on the fuel cost, road conditions, as well as any indirect and direct costs associated with inland transportation. Among the cheapest road transport rate, is Ghana's with 0.14 USD/ton/km followed by Togo, 0.16 USD/ton/km. The highest transport rate is noted with Nigeria, 0.2 USD/ton/km. The objective is the identification of the minimal transport cost route. Hence in the following course of the corridors   transport cost performance analysis, where direct rail transport is available and operational, the model will make calculation utilizing the average rail transport cost instead of the average road transport cost. In the case of Abidjan to Ouagadougou, different costs are allocated to different transport modes. The transport modes considered are two namely; rail and truck.

Mathematical Function
The total transportation calculation cost can simply be written mathematically as Open Journal of Social Sciences

Unimodal Transport Cost Analysis Forecast, for Year 2023
The unimodal transport cost for freight transiting from each of the five major ports to the destination to each of the three LLCs commercial centres (Bamako, Niamey, and Ouagadougou) is presented in the  Billion (see Figure 3).
In regards to the cargo to and from Niamey (Niger) to the coastal countries, the first option route shippers might consider would likely be Cotonou USD 2.302 Billion, followed by Lomé USD 2.337 Billion and then the Lagos route USD 2.457 Billion in terms of unimodal transport costs. Abidjan and Tema are the most costly transport corridor routes among others (see Figure 4).
Though the distance between Lomé-Ouagadougou is listed as the shortest compared to other routes, Burkinabe shippers would likely in the forecasting unimodal transport cost prefer the Tema route costing USD 2.144 Billion. The Lomé-Ouagadougou route, USD 2.152 Billion would come as the second best  Billion. This is interesting given that cargo routed through the Abidjan-Ouagadougou corridor goes by train (see Figure 5).

Survey Results on Intermodal Transport Localization
In regard to the introduction of an intermodal transport system along the Lomé corridor route, 55% of the respondents opposed the idea with the majority 53% of the truckers, who argued that such transport modes would increase the rate of unemployment in the transport industry (see Table 7). On the contrary, 42% of respondents welcomed the idea of an intermodal transport system; of that 22% of the truckers and 20% of freight forwarders who stated that this would lead to transit time saving, security improvements, avoidance of the Alédjo-Mountains, transport cost reduction, and the reduction of road accidents.
Considering the choice of the intermodal terminal along the Togo corridor route, the majority of the respondents' for the adoption of an intermodal transport system, here about 36% voted in favor of the city of Mango as the best host city for an intermodal terminal (see Table 8).

Intermodal Transport Cost Analysis Forecast, for Year 2023
In the previous section, the survey-based terminal localization gives the city of Mango, at 550 km north to the capital city of Lomé, as to be the best intermodal terminal location. This research, therefore, uses the survey results for calculating the intermodal transport cost of cargo flow through the Togo corridor. Calculations are thus taking into account this new parameter. The transport cost is a function of several factors such as the volume of cargo, the distance from the origin to final destination, the average transport cost by road and by rail, the demand from each LLCs, and the available mode of transport.
The choice of the best route in terms of cost minimization will depend on the total transport cost whether in unimodal or intermodal case. The total unimodal versus intermodal transport cost calculation is presented in Table 9. The section deals with analyzing transport costs by routing. This implies the comparison of the different cargo traffic flow from ports and routed to each LLCs market. The upper limit on the freight rates will be fixed by the road freight rates; i.e. the railway cannot set the freight rates higher than the road freight rates unless the customer is willing to pay more than the road freight rates. As for Rajiv D., et al.
(2011) [44], they suggest that the freight rate should be set in sort to determine the optimum pricing policy and terminal location in order to guarantee a certain level of profit for the railway from the intermodal service. This means that pricing should be set in such a way that the railway can achieve profits without losing traffic to road transport.
Moreover, for the case of Togo, it is given based on our survey research that customers are not willing to pay more than the road freight rate, and therefore the truck shipping cost using the intermodal service should be less than the cost of shipping by road. Consequently, the research applies the freight rate of 0.14 USD/ton/km as same as the one from Ivory Coast, added to the fact that these two countries share numerous similarities.
Regarding the forecasted demand, the Ivory Coast corridor offers the least inland transport cost for cargo traffic in direction and from Bamako in Mali, with a total cost of USD 3.472 Billion. This followed by the Tema-Bamako route, with about USD 4.070 Billion then the Lomé-Bamako route with USD 4.503 Billion.
The Benin and Nigeria corridors offer the highest transport costs USD 5.179 Billion and USD 5.740 Billion, respectively (see Figure 6). Open Journal of Social Sciences Niger shippers (see Figure 7).
In regard to the transit cargo to and from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, Togo corridor route offers the best transport cost in terms of cost minimization with USD 1.992 Billion, directly followed by Ghana corridor exhibiting a transport cost of USD 2.144 Billion and the Ivory Coast with USD 2.499 Billion. The Lagos-Ouagadougou routing holds the highest transport cost among all the routes, with the Cotonou-Ouagadougou routing closely behind (see Figure 8). LLCs understudy in the account of the year 2023 (see Figure 9).
As a result, the costs advantage to serve medium and long distance with rail is significant and is directly reflected in the pricing of intermodal transport. The   rail-truck intermodal service can be a key strategy adopted to shift the high traffic density from the road to the railway. It will include the advantages of both the truck and the rail service. Pricing and willingness to pay are fundamental in the strategic planning for the development of the new infrastructure for an intermodal transport system.
The present research assumes that road distances will not alter within the time period forecasted. An average transport cost per ton-kilometer remains the same. It also assumes that transport costs are the main factors intervening in the transport decision, as we can realistically suppose that operators try to optimize the transport mechanisms. Other factors which have not been taken into account The study found that the function of transport costs is most important in the transport intermodal problem, and determine the choice of cargo routing by shippers.

Conclusions
The corridor agenda is increasingly widely adopted by governments, the private sector, and development agencies. There is a realization that a poor corridor performance can hurt the economic prospects, of especially developing landlocked economies, with disproportionate impacts on their small and medium-sized enterprises (Kunaka C., & Robin C., 2014) [45]. Shippers from Niger would go through the Benin corridor. This analysis accounted for unimodal transport, which is largely used by developing countries.
Nevertheless, the present study encourages policymakers to take into account, There is no cost for you to participate in the evaluation and you receive no compensation in exchange for your participation in this survey. Your inputs are extremely valuable to this research for your opinion on the appropriate mode of transport in terms of efficacy and efficiency along the corridor of Lomé-Cinkassé. I will be very grateful if you could help out in answering this academic survey.
I solely assure you that all answers and information obtained from this academic survey remain totally confidential and will be generally analysed with specific reference to you or your organization and be used for academic purposes only.
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