The goal of this deliverable is to present the main outputs and outcomes of a stakeholder consultation launched the 14th of September, aimed at collecting their vision about the Port of the Future. This deliverable describes the main characteristics of the involved stakeholders, the methodology followed to carry out the consultation, the key findings and results obtained, an analysis of the stakeholders’’ feedback and a focus on the main outcomes deriving from the bilateral meetings occurred with the Directorate Generals (DGs). This document and other work products of the work package will be reviewed during the meeting with experts, which will take place in Oporto the 29th and 30th of October 2018.
Stakeholders Engagement is a continuous and systematic process by which an organisation establishes a constructive dialogue and a fruitful communication with its key stakeholders. The purpose of involvement is to contribute both for decision makers’ expectations and interests of stakeholders, so that the former can take the gathered inputs into account in decision making. Ports, indeed, represent areas where different conflicting interests (environmental, social and economic) meet. Ports are not just an organisation by themselves, separated from their environment, but are also is embedded in the local, regional, national and international environments and this has to be reflected in the stakeholders’ engagement. Stakeholders are not static entities. They change over time and space (Dooms, et al., 2013). They are also embedded in complex environments that shape e.g. their visions and values. Their actual knowledge, resources, needs and interests, for example, can differ from their knowledge, resources, needs and interests in just a short period of time.
Stakeholders Engagement is a continuous and systematic process by which an organisation establishes a constructive dialogue and a fruitful communication with its key stakeholders. The purpose of involvement is to contribute both for decision makers’ expectations and interests of stakeholders, so that the former can take the gathered inputs into account in decision making. Ports, indeed, represent areas where different conflicting interests (environmental, social and economic) meet. Ports are not just an organisation by themselves, separated from their environment, but are also is embedded in the local, regional, national and international environments and this has to be reflected in the stakeholders’ engagement. Stakeholders are not static entities. They change over time and space (Dooms, et al., 2013). They are also embedded in complex environments that shape e.g. their visions and values. Their actual knowledge, resources, needs and interests, for example, can differ from their knowledge, resources, needs and interests in just a short period of time.
The stakeholder’s selection was carried out having as a basis the content, the expected results and the impacts of the project, as well as the available resources, the objectives of the engagement, and the willingness or the ability of the stakeholders to engage and to be involved to the project.
Other methods used for identifying key stakeholders were:
Brainstorming and consulting with project partners and with other organisations that have been involved in similar activities
Utilising existing stakeholder lists and databases of the project partners in order to identify other groups, networks and agencies
The survey was administered to 1585 stakeholders. Stakeholders are grouped according to (and were asked to select) the below criteria:
1. Type of organisation stakeholders are connected with:
Port –Related (e.g. Port Authority)
Ship-related1
Multi-modal logistics operator
Terminal-Operator
Technology provider
Authorities (e.g. Customs)
Member States
Cities, Municipalities
Association
Universities, Research Associations
2. Size of the company/organisation stakeholders are connected with:
Micro-enterprise (<10 persons employed, up to €2 million turnover)
SME (Small-Medium enterprise) (from 10 to 249 employees, up to €50 million turnover, or balance sheet total up to €43 million)
Big company or organization (250 employees or more, more than €50 million turnover, and balance sheet total of more than €43 million)
3. Country to which stakeholders belong
4. Company/organisation they work with
5. Activities of the organisation/company stakeholders are connected with:
Survey method used to engage stakeholders and main features of the online survey:
The stakeholders’ consultation was carried out through an online survey based on the Google forms platform.
The online survey was launched the 14th September 2018 and remained open until the 1st of October. After the first launch, a second reminder was sent on the 26th of September. The official survey was preceded by 5 interviews that were aimed at testing the stakeholders’ answer. The interviews were partially close to the current survey since they were mainly based on open questions. After this “testing phase”, the consortium decided to administer an online survey, made up by both open and closed questions, a smaller number of open questions and a greater adherence to deliverable D1.1 Desktop analysis of the concept including EU Policies, that, in the meantime, was submitted and completed.
To reach out a larger community of interested stakeholders, the link to the web-based survey has been disseminated using:
The official project website
The official project newsletter
Dedicated emails to the selected stakeholders
The online survey has been closed on the 1st of October 2018 with 72 complete individual answers.
The stakeholder consultation sought to mobilise relevant stakeholders in order to (a) generate knowledge about the project, and to (b) get opinions from the most relevant stakeholders about their vision of the Port of The Future. This Chapter is a summary of the main results of the stakeholder’s consultation as well as the profile of the respondents.
— Profile of respondents
Geographical coverage
The geographic coverage of the consultation was broad. Survey respondents came from16 Countries, mainly in the EU, as shown, with a large participation from Italy (20,3 %), Belgium (12,5%) and Spain (15,6%). Figure 4 shows the country-specific percentage
Representation of stakeholder groups
As shown in figure 4, the majority of respondents belong to the Port –related sector (23 %), followed by Universities and research associations (22 %), consultants (14 %), and technology providers (11%).
As for the activities carried out by the stakeholder’s groups, table 1 shows that the vast majority of respondents (26,98 %) perform research activities, followed by the territorial planning of the port area (17,46 %) and, with an equal percentage (11,11 %), the following two activities:
Address, planning, coordination, promotion and control of port operations and other activities carried out in the ports (e.g. identification of the port development strategies);
Terminal Operations (container or multipurpose) (e.g. container handling; storage of bulk containers; container transhipment; weighing containers; loading/discharging of bulk cargo vessels; mooring and unmooring; warehousing; receipt and delivery (gate control); grab hire).
Feedbacks from the survey
Tactical Objectives
The stakeholders were asked (refer to section 3 of the survey) to score 9 categories of tactical objectives with scores between 0 (no importance) and 4 (the highest importance). The below topics are what the consortium proposes to be realised by the ports and its stakeholders by 2030.
Performance and quality of service: as highlighted in figure 5, 59,38 % of respondents attributed the highest importance to this tactical objective, followed by a medium –high score (37,5 %) while only 3,13 % respondents attributed a medium-low importance.
DTF stakeholders’ consultation Page 16 of 58
Hinterland, multi/synchro modality, supply chain integration, modal shift2: as shown in figure 6, as many as 65,08 % of respondents attributed the highest importance to this tactical objective, followed by a 37,50 % of them that attributed a medium-high importance.
Mobility and accessibility: This tactical objective refers to the consistency between urban mobility plans and port connections. In this case, there is a higher percentage of respondents attributing a medium-high score to this tactical objective (45,91%) than those attributing the highest the highest importance (35,94%).
TEN-T Networks: This is about the realisation of TEN-T core and comprehensive networks. In this case, 3,13 % of respondents believe that the connection of a port to the TEN-T network has a very low importance.
Sustainability: This topic covers all aspects of the traditional 3P perspective on sustainability: planet is environmental sustainability, profit is the economic sustainability and people is the Social sustainability. In other words, initiatives to improve the environment should not have a considerable negative effect on the economy and on the social welfare. A high percentage of respondents attributed the highest importance to this tactical objective (68,75 %), followed by a medium-high importance selected by the 23,44%).
For the full report of the Deliverable, please click here.