How do intermediaries affect the economic organization of Intermodal freight transport? An analysis based on the intermediation theory of the firm

A key issue affecting the efficiency of intermodal freight transportation is the coordination among different actors in the whole "door to door" transport chain. To realize the coordination, from the perspective of economics, it is essential for these actors to adopt one appropriate economic organization to govern the relationship among them. Generally, the main approaches of economic organization include market (subcontracting) or hierarchy (internal organization). By applying the intermediation theory of the firm, the paper analyzes the the role of intermediaries in the economic organization of intermodal freight transport. The paper considers that the existence of many intermediaries which greatly reduce transaction costs make the approach of market contract more available and attractive in organizing the intermodal transport economic system.