Logistic systems are more and more becoming key elements in building sustainable competitive advantage for business systems. In particular, logistic platforms (in Italian, interporti) carry out a highly central role in the Italian economic system, facilitating interconnections between various transport modalities and increasing the importance of ports’ ability to join overland routes with sea routes. Traditionally, literature has adopted a systemic perspective in which continuous interactions take place between actors and activities characterizing the system and determining success. In this sense, as Christopher (1992) claims, “real competition is not [any more] company against company, but rather supply chain against supply chain” (p. 14). The aim of the paper is to analyze the activities carried out within the logistic platform infrastructures, amongst which a leading role is played by a certain special typology of the actor, here defined as Meta-Logistic Operators (MLOs).

The logistic system, as an element, gives a competitive advantage to single organizations and business firm systems alike, and is now becoming increasingly important (Power et al., 2001; Håkansson and Persson, 2004; Gourdin, 2006; and Li et al., 2006). One of the main reasons was the central position occupied by the processes associated with the collection and distribution of goods and finished products in the economics of the entire production cycle (Bechtel and Jayaram, 1997; Mercurio et al., 2000; Martinez and Canonico, 2006; and Esper et al., 2007). More particularly, a discriminating role in the evaluation of a logistic network may be attributed to the strength and soundness of an efficiently-operative intermodality system (Leinbach and Capineri, 2006).

In this regard, a significant step forward in the history of intermodality in Italy was made between the late 1970s and the early 1980s, a time when considerable public and private funds were invested in integrating transportation modalities effectively, and creating platforms specialized in the handling of load units (both port and inland terminals) (Boscacci, 2004; and Consiglio et al., 2011).

In particular, the Law n.240/90 contributed greatly to the development of an integrated logistic network, aiming at the modernization of available infrastructures in order to promote and extend intermodal freight (Mercurio et al., 2012).

This was coherent with the progressive trend whereas, the objective in the first General Transport Plan (1986) had been to integrate the logistic and transport system in Italy, the focus in the 1999 general transports plan now moved towards integrating logistic systems.

Thus, there was the emergence of a number of logistic platforms and intermodal terminals that carry out a central role in the current economic system, facilitating interconnections between different transport modalities and encouraging the role of ports as strategic hubs (Dalla et al., 2002).

In this view, the Italian logistic platforms can be compared with Spanish Zonas de Actividades Logisticas (ZAL), German Güterverkehrszentren (GVZ), French Platformes Logistiques, British Freight Villages. Interporti exert a locational pull on the logistics sites by combining a strong intermodal nature with network advantages (Woxenius, 1999; McKinnon, 2001; and Notteboom, 2004).

Supply Chain Management Journal, Meta-Logistic Operators, Focal Organizations, Italian Logistic Platforms, Service and Processes, The Role of MLOs, The MLO as a Real Estate Manager, The MLO as an Intermodal Agency, The MLO as a Logistic Operator, The MLO as an Intermodal Business Promoter.