Optimization of empty container repositioning in liner shipping

In recent years, with the development of the shipping industry, container transportation has gradually become a major part of the shipping industry. Nevertheless, the transportation of high-cost empty containers has posed a serious challenge for liner shipping companies. The movement of empty containers is an unavoidable problem due to the imbalance of supply and demand across the country. Historical data show that empty containers account for about 20 percent of the total shipping volume, and this figure is still rising year by year. Therefore, it becomes more and more important to raise the shipping company's management level of the empty container to reduce transportation costs. The issue of empty container transport has also attracted the attention of many scholars and has carried out corresponding research, but systematic and rigorous quantitative analysis has yet to be published. And most of the shipping companies are still using the experience of scheduling rather than a systematic empty container repositioning system. This article focuses on one route of a shipping company as the main research subject. It uses a linear programming model to optimize problems and find out the best transportation network to reduce transportation expenses.Bachelor of Science (Maritime Studies