The Rise of Transportation and Logistics in Europe 1950 - 2000

Abstract

In the last decades logistics changed fundamentally: from a microeconomic point of view, logistics developed from an auxiliary function in materials management to an independent factor of production that would go onto coordinate world-wide supply chains. From a macroeconomic point of view, the rise of the logistics sector as an important employment sector is fundamental and a force for deepening the division of labor. This paper explores the driving factors of the rise of logistics. It demonstrates how traffic policy of a gradually unified Europe shaped the development of logistics from its basic functions of transport, handling of cargo, and storage to the modern concepts of high performance logistics, including concepts of organization of world wide supply chains and dimensions of quality in services, such as promptness and accuracy. Besides the political factor of the unification of Europe, one can identify an economic factor concerning the development of a consumer-oriented economy. The great variety of consumer goods was a challenge for the automobile production and the distribution logistics. As a third factor, the innovations in the parcel industry are considered where for the first time the flow of goods are linked to information technology to ensure speed and quality resulting in the “tracking and tracing technology”. The forth factor was the process of globalization, which led to the creation of production sites for consumer goods outside of Europe. As a result, the logistics of consumer goods distribution were realigned to import harbors, where consumer goods arrived pooled in shipping containers. The paper is based on the evaluation of research reports, monographs on traffic policy and national and European statistics. The rise of logistics has not drawn much attention of the scholars in the past. So this paper opens a new field of research. First we address to the consumer-oriented economy.

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