The Effect of Port Gate Location and Gate Procedures on the Port-City Relation

Ports are important hubs that have positive impacts on the regions they serve, but they also pose some challenges that need to be addressed. Many ports around the world have aligned their development strategies with the concept of green growth; however, the green and efficient performance of ports does not only depend on the port management itself; some elements need to be negotiated and approved by local and national governments. One of such elements is road port access. We investigated the impact of port gate location and port gate procedures on port's performance by examining the case of the Adriatic port of Koper, the only Slovenian international cargo port. We found that significant external costs are incurred due to a non-optimized situation caused by the lack of coordination and cooperation on all levels, although the port of Koper is one of European core ports. Further, delayed digitalization of port gate procedures caused by port management adds to degradation of port city relations.