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The purpose of this paper is to figure out in which way a hinterland-based inland depot model can help a shipping company in solving the empty container problem at a regional level. The repositioning of empty containers is a very expensive operation that does not generate profits. Consequently, it is very important to provide an efficient empty container management.

In this paper, the empty container problem is discussed at a regional repositioning level. For solving this problem, a mixed-integer linear optimization model is developed and validated by using the German hinterland as a case.

The findings show that the hinterland-based solution is able to reduce the total system costs by 40 per cent. In addition, total of truck kilometres could be reduced by more than 30 per cent too.

This research is based on German data only.

This paper closes the gap in empty container repositioning research by looking at the hinterland dimension from a single shipping company point of view.

Container shipping is generally considered a global business. This truth may not hold from a single-company perspective. The companies’ physical operation networks show that container carriers operate differently and follow different paths in their internationalisation development. Additionally, the degree of internationalisation, measured on the basis of sea-oriented operations, differs from that measured according to land-oriented front-end marketing and sales activities. The purpose of this study is to further examine the internationalisation patterns of shipping lines.

An examination of the front-end activities and the structures of leading container-shipping companies is conducted. The sales office networks of the sector’s 20 largest companies worldwide (by twenty-foot equivalent unit capacity) are analysed as key indicators. The numbers of sales offices are measured by analysing the websites of the sample (20 companies), as well as annual reports and other publicly available data sources.

The findings show that not all shipping companies are international, by virtue of the industry. While it is difficult to observe differences in the overall patterns of the sales networks at a macro level, some companies differ in their activities. The data set also shows that market share and total capacity are not necessarily good indicators of a carrier’s worldwide presence.

This research is based on secondary data. Other important transactional and market-oriented considerations should be examined before drawing conclusions about the internationalisation of container-shipping companies and of the industry.

This paper contributes to the relevant existing research, particularly by adding its view on the demand-oriented criteria as suggested by Dunning and Lundan (2008).