Intermodal terminal concessions: Lessons from the port sector

Tendering procedures for concession of port terminals to private operators have been the subject of considerable interest during the last decade. As a consequence, keys to effective port governance, particularly the landlord model, are fairly well understood, even standardised to some degree. By contrast, intermodal terminal contracts have been found to be quite varied, with little standardisation of procedures, requirements, risks, incentives or contracts even within a single country.This paper applies lessons from the study of port terminal concession contracts to the intermodal sector. The World Bank port reform toolkit is used to create a framework with 72 provisions, which is then matched against five intermodal terminal concession contracts. The analysis reveals several uncertainties in intermodal concession contracts, relating particularly to a lack of specified provisions on performance monitoring and measurement, open access to users, infrastructure maintenance, service marketing and hand back procedures. The paper identifies how the port concession framework used in this paper can be adapted for use with intermodal terminals, as the first step towards developing a global standard such as that used in the port sector