Empty container management in inland transport : a systematic literature review

Karišik, Asad (author), Škerlič, Sebastjan (author), Tuljak Suban, Danijela (author)

Empty Container Management (ECM) represents a cost-intensive and environmentally impactful component of global container logistics, with its effects most visibly manifested in inland transport systems. Despite extensive academic attention, research on ECM remains fragmented across optimisation, coordination, sustainability, and technology-oriented approaches, often addressing isolated processes or decision problems. As a result, persistent costs, inefficiencies, and emissions continue to characterise inland container logistics. This study applies PRISMA guidelines to systematically review the ECM literature. The analysis focuses on three aspects: the structural causes of container imbalances, the operational activities generating costs and emissions, and the stakeholders influencing ECM decisions. The findings show that empty container imbalances do not arise from a single source. Instead, they result from the interaction of global trade asymmetries, demand uncertainty, fragmented inland operations, and diverse regulatory and institutional environments. The answers to the research questions reveal three fundamental research gaps in the existing literature. First, optimising locally does not always improve the entire system, as it might simply shift costs to other parts of the empty container management (ECM) system. Second, technological solutions cannot operate effectively without appropriate governance mechanisms and data-sharing arrangements. Third, the actors responsible for setting rules and controlling equipment availability often do not bear the full consequences of empty container movements. This review provides a structured foundation for developing integrative decision-support approaches capable of addressing inland ECM under real-world structural constraints.

• Language: English
• Keywords: empty container management, inland transport, empty container repositioning, logistics costs, transport emissions, maritime–inland interface
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.02 - Review Article
• Organization: FPP - Faculty of Maritime Studies and Transport
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 1-25
• Numbering: Vol. 14, issue 4, art. no. 356
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-182867
• UDC: 656.1:629.354
• ISSN on article: 2079-8954
• DOI: 10.3390/systems14040356
• COBISS.SI-ID: 273340675
• Publication date in RUL: 26.05.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Systems
• Shortened title: Systems
• Publisher: MDPI AG
• ISSN: 2079-8954
• COBISS.SI-ID: 523410713

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: upravljanje praznih kontejnerjev, celinski promet, logistični stroški, emisije cestnega prometa, pomorsko-celinske povezave