Goods transportation and the group of associated logistical activities make up a key factor for the organization and operation of the productive system. Nowadays, the Goods Transport System plays a crucial role within any regional development strategy.

In Andalusia’s case, the comparatively low level in productive development in which the region still finds itself and, above all, its outlying location in Europe, means the consolidation of its Goods Transportation System and respective efficiency is imperative for improving the competitiveness of the Andalusian economy and for attaining satisfactory integration within the domestic and international markets.

Globalization and the reallocation of the productive processes in relation to the centres of consumption cause the logistics and transport costs to become an all-important factor in the total cost of the products. Therefore, the efficiency of the logistics process is essential to the competitiveness of the productive systems.

The geostrategic  position of Andalusia conditions its logistics strategies in an important way:

• Its outlying location with regard to Europe makes it essential to provide an efficient goods transportation system in order to minimize added costs.
• Its central location with regard to sea traffic with Asia, the Americas and Africa, means that Andalusia has great potential for becoming a logistics hub at an intercontinental level.

In Andalusia, road haulage makes up 98% of land transportation. The high levels of traffic congestion of this kind of traffic and the associated problems involved (pollution, driving regulations, lack of safety, etc.), which are increased by the additional extra-long distances, make it unsustainable to base trading growth in the Region on road haulage.

Within this context, the Junta de Andalucía, just as the European Union and the Spanish State are doing, are investing in a new goods transportation system of an intermodal kind where the promotion of sea and rail transportation balances the use of the different means of transport, and where the logistics activity provides for its maximum operation.

With regard to these challenges, the Junta de Andalucía has created the Logistics Network of Andalusia, which is an integrating concept embracing the whole of the logistics infrastructure and goods transportation of the Autonomous Community. By virtue of the 5/2001 Act, that regulates the Logistical Areas in Andalusia, the administration and management functions of the logistical areas concerning the Autonomous Community correspond to the Regional Government that provides them through the Public Agency of the Harbours of Andalusia, which in turn exercises these functions by way of its instrumental entity Logistical Network of Andalusia, S.A. Its main strategic development lines are as follow:

• Provide Andalusia with a group of 11 logistical areas of Autonomous Community interest that supply the backbone of the Region’s goods transportation system in a way that provision is made for specialized areas equipped for modal exchange activities, warehousing, stock breakage, crossdocking, as well as added value logistics activities.
• Promote the trading activity of the harbours located in Andalusia in order to improve their capacity for generating economic activity and employment through better connections with the territory they serve at the same time as allowing for an increase in external trade of the Andalusian productive sectors by way of sea transport, which is the most efficient in global terms for large-scale goods flows.
• Promote the development of goods transportation by rail as the most efficient land transport means in global terms, by way of the promotion of corridors and intermodal terminals located in logistical areas of Autonomous Community interest. These will facilitate the external connections of the Andalusian logistical system.