A Cooperative Model of Inland Container Transportation

This study explores the effects of truck-sharing and inland empty container repositioning through cooperation among shipping lines. Accordingly, a simulation-based model is presented to identify the quantitative benefits of cooperation, where inland empty container reuse is optimized in integration with a dynamic vehicle allocation and routing problem with time-windows constraints. Furthermore, this study considers a two-dimensional capacity for vehicle types and demands, while maintaining the objective to minimize total transport cost in a time-varying network and considering constraints of some road segments on the use by larger trucks. A case study of two weeks’ import and export container movements is used to evaluate the cooperation scenario. Simulation results show huge savings in total transport cost and distance travelled as a result of reseource sharing. The major findings of this study are: (i) there is a significant number of unnecessary truck movements and storage days of empty containers which can be avoided via cooperation among shipping companies; (ii) larger trucks are utilised as a result of truck-sharing, which are more environmentally benign and cost-efficient choices compared to smaller trucks; (iii) a decision support system is proposed to provide solutions to the freight actors regarding optimal routing and vehicle allocation, based on real-world constraints and dynamics