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One strategy that can offer substantial transportation performance improvement is freight consolidation. Freight consolidation refers to the practice of aggregating customer orders over space and/or time until a specified minimum total shipment weight/volume is accumulated and/or a maximum holding time for the oldest customer order is reached. The aggregated customer orders are then shipped together.

This paper aims to further study the panel report in Russia – Traffic in Transit regarding the interpretation and application of 1994 general agreements on tariffs and trade (GATT) Article XXI(b). It analyses the threshold applied by the panel in applying Article XXI(b)(iii) and further discusses the potential problem that may arise in the future dispute. This study also investigates the notion of emergency and security interest and its development in international law.

This normative research uses a qualitative legal methodology. This study conducts desk analysis of primary legal materials and existing literature to assess the concept of security interest within the World Trade Organization (WTO) framework.

This paper finds that the panel in Russia – Traffic in Transit applied subjective and objective test in reviewing Russia’s invocation of GATT Article XXI(b)(iii). Despite the adjectival self-judging clause and the political tension of the dispute, the panel is capable to review its application. This study further finds that the term security interest and emergency in international relations still leaves the possibility of open interpretation.

Because of the normative research approach, the research results lack empirical data and implications. Therefore, future research is encouraged to inquire on the empirical research.

This paper fulfils the need to study and explore security exception clause within the WTO framework as a normative rule of law and in the wider conceptual notion of security and emergency in international law.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the characteristics of closed car-sharing services and present the relevant factors to provide reasonable service locations. Car-sharing service locations have been arranged to allow customers to easily access locations. However, the particular car-sharing service in this study, enforced through an agreement between residents of the House of Commons, is operated as a closed service, limited to public housing residents. This closed car-sharing service in the House of Commons differs from typical services in that, after use, the users return the vehicle to the same parking location. In addition, determination of the general car-sharing locations is based on the profits of the service operator. The service can be stopped as there are a number of other alternatives for mobility. However, if the closed car-sharing service in the House of Commons is canceled, there is no other alternative for existing users. Therefore, the site selection for the initial introduction of the House of Commons in a closed car-sharing service is a very important issue.

This study uses nine months of data from 39 complexes for location analysis for public housing residents in urban areas. The LH Happy Carsharing is a closed private service, used by people residing within approximately 50 rental LH-apartment complexes. As closed car sharing is unfavorable in comparison to other car-sharing services, it is important to demonstrate that the service can succeed in securing a sufficient amount of users. To analyze the viability and usage of the service, the authors have considered ten potential variables.

On the basis of the regression analysis result, the adopted significant variables are the number of households, the percentage of residents in the 40’s age group and the number of households with registered vehicles.

In general, for car-sharing research, specific user groups are not generally identified. However, LH Happy Carsharing is specifically targeted to residents in rental apartments. The LH Happy Carsharing is a private service, used by people residing within approximately 50 rental LH Apartment complexes. Since closed carsharing is unfavorable in comparison to other carsharing services, it is important to demonstrate that the service can succeed in securing a sufficient amount of users. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the characteristics of private carsharing and present the relevant factors to provide reasonable service locations.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of information technology (IT) in the fight against forest fires in southern France.

The focus is on specifying the infrastructure and equipment used during operational interventions, as well as the role and functioning of the mobile command posts, which represent the nerve centers. As part of the firefighters operational practices, the concepts of the “tactical situation” and the “mobile means board” are at the heart of operations management. The purpose of the tactical situations is to present a synthetic overview of the theatre of operations through graphic representation on a background map. The function of the mobile means board is to manage the life cycle of the different resources engaged in the operations. The author first shows how these concepts were developed within the framework of manual management only. This is followed by an IT solution using a geographical information system for each of these operational modes.

A profound recognition of operational practices was a prerequisite to enable the personnel to accept a progression towards the use of IT techniques.

The implemented approach precisely reflects the French forest firefighting doctrine. Application to other countries would thus require some adaptation.

The software system provides an easy access to geographical information functionalities for firefighters managing forest fires. This is achieved in the framework of strict compliance with their recognized operational methods.

Naples, Italy in the last decade has become a destination for Ukrainian migrants escaping the economic uncertainty of their homeland. A sign of the city's importance in the diaspora is that the Ukrainian government in 2008 opened a local consulate. Estimates are that nearly a million Ukrainians have used Italy as a point of labour transit, even if only a fifth of those are formally registered. The purpose of this paper is to examine the strategies with which Ukrainian migrants in Naples, Italy attempt to create ontological security in the context of informal economies and the uncertainties of the migratory process.

The research is based on 18 months of ethnographic close observation and participation in migrant networks in Naples between 2004 and 2008.

The research reveals the strategies used by Ukrainian migrants to arrange and maintain transnational connections, seek work, and develop a sense of belonging through place‐making and institutional development in the face of the significant barriers to inclusion and socio‐economic stability in Neapolitan society.

The evidence suggests that policymakers concerned with social cohesion and integration might wish to consider informal economic activities not simply as a “problem” to resolve but a key feature of contemporary capitalism that may create the conditions to address their concerns. Therefore, a more nuanced understanding of how migrants create their lives through these activities would be useful.

This ethnographic material suggests that greater attention should be paid to the creative capacities of migrants to create a sense of security through informal activities. Migrants make extensive use of social networks and knowledge distribution to form the basis of decisions about economic behaviour, emplacement and ontological security.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between the main decisions for designing distribution centers (DCs) and the contextual characteristics of the distribution networks.

Experts were surveyed and responses analyzed quantitatively through multivariate data techniques. This study considered four contextual characteristics that were deemed as influential for DC design: types of routes in the distribution network, quantity of DCs, distribution network levels and company size.

This paper evidenced which decisions are affected by each contextual characteristic encompassed in this study. This paper identified that the characteristic types of route in the distribution network must be carefully considered, as it had the greatest amount of associations with the decisions for designing a DC.

Despite its importance, most studies on design of DCs disregard the effect of the context in which DCs are inserted. This research provides arguments to support decision-making process of DCs design, increasing assertiveness of their planning. This work fulfills a literature gap by empirically examining the effect of contextual variables on the decisions related to DC design. Regarding practice, this paper addressed a fundamental issue for managers looking to design a DC, as it evidenced how contextual characteristics impact the decision-making.

Consolidation, the grouping of several small shipments into one at a designated location, can reduce total logistics cost. Total logistics cost includes consolidation, transportation and inventory costs. Identifying where cost‐saving opportunities exist is often confused by the interrelated nature of these various costs.

More than ever before, public transit must compete in the transport market. This competition is, on the one hand, against steadily increasing car traffic; and on the other hand, between public transit operators. This, in turn, leads to new demands regarding the type, content and quality of data needed for planning and management. Frequently, traditional travel behaviour surveys do not provide sufficiently accurate and detailed information about public transit demand. To plan public transit, frequently a precise description of all trip stages, including the first and the last mile, is necessary. To achieve this, an adaptation of the traditional survey methods is necessary. In many countries, public transit associations have been established to integrate services offered by individual public transit operators with the help of through-ticketing and a coordination of lines and timetables into what looks, to the user, like a single system. To distribute revenue among the operators involved, detailed surveys of passengers are needed. Measuring the quality of public transit service and surveying customer satisfaction are new tasks. Such data are the basis for quality assurance and are essential for gaining and keeping customers of the public transit system. New technologies such as the Global Positioning System, automated passenger counts and Smart Card Payment Systems offer new possibilities to collect data more efficiently and cost-effectively. This article covers essential aspects of surveys and the collection of data that are crucial for the planning and management of public transit; it points to state-of-the-art methods and offers potential solutions.