Implications of electronic commerce technologies on transport logistics

Use of an economic metaphor for a global virtual logistic organisation leads to motivating self interested parties to achieve mutual satisfactory and efficient outcomes. Efficiency, in this sense, is maximised when redistributing the trade surplus leaves everyone at least as well as before. Simulation of economic aspects of transport logistic chain is currently under the way at Rijeka college of maritime studies. The primary aspects are transaction costs and vertical integration. The paper introduces theoretical foundations and results of the research. The model is very complex. We have recognized 103 different documents and 24 different kind of firms in the international transport. The scope was to simulate the document, goods and money flow in the inter-national transport, to define costs of installing equipment, programs for EDI. The results show that electronic documents can decrease the transaction costs. Electronic documents diminish the time used to obtain, create the documents, and thus the costs are decreased. For one shipment electronic documents are 39% cheaper, then paper documents.