Off-peak truck deliveries at container terminals: the 'Good Night' program in Israel

Purpose – Avoiding truck congestion and peaks in landside activity is one of the challenges to container terminal managers. The spreading of truck arrivals at terminals can be facilitated by widening the opening hours of terminals at the landside. Israel’s Ministry of Transport has instituted the “Good Night Program”, involving monetary incentives for importers and exporters who deliver containers to ports at night. Design/methodology/approach – This paper aims to quantitatively examine the market utility resulting from shifting traffic from daytime to nighttime, and analyzes customer considerations regarding nighttime transportation. Findings – The external utility found in the traffic-economics model is quite similar to the economic incentive given to customers. Therefore, a significant increase of the incentive is not feasible. Originality/value – Furthermore, it seems that an incentive method by itself is not effective enough, and does not motivate customers to act and find creative solutions to the obstacles they face. To achieve a considerable change in nighttime transport to Israeli ports, more effective methods should be examined

Marketing Strategies for Freight Traffic on Indian Railways - A Systems Perspective

Indian Railways (IR) had lost its market share in high rated freight commodities especially cement, POL, and iron and steel. IR was missing an overall strategy for freight business, which was overcharged without sensitivity to competition. Over time, other transport modes, especially road (and pipeline in the case of POL) captured a very significant share of freight due to their faster and door-to-door deliveries. Several initiatives have been taken in the recent past to make IRs’ strategies market oriented like increased axle loading, better pricing strategy, and improved services. In 2005-06, IR loaded 667 mt of revenue earning freight traffic, marking an increase of 110 mt over 2003-04. Additional freight revenue was Rs 9172 crore during the same period. IR still has a tremendous potential in the freight business, but it needs to be examined with an appropriate framework for segmentation of the market. Like in any other transport business, an origin-destination (OD) based systems perspective could be used. The primary categorization of origins would be industry/collection centre, mine and port. The primary categorization of destinations would be industry, port and distribution center. An attempt was made by the authors to do an OD analysis on the 666.5mt (602.1 mt) of freight traffic of 2005-06 (2004-05). The above analysis has implications for leveraging the four Ps of marketing; product (service attributes), price, promotion, and place (logistics). This paper attempts to evolve marketing strategies for freight traffic, based on the OD market analysis specified above.

Container Train Operators in India: Problems and Prospects

In India, railways are under the control of the government which is the sole provider of the infrastructure, operations and regulatory functions. Private participation, though very limited, was largely in the domain of infrastructure creation. In January 2006, in a landmark initiative to introduce competition in the container operations segment, the Ministry of Railways allowed the entry of private and public sector operators to obtain licences for running container trains on the Indian Railways (IR) network. Until then, the Container Corporation of India, a subsidiary of IR, was the monopoly operator of container trains in India. This initiative was the first significant move of its kind where private parties were allowed to make entry in the domain of railway operations with direct customer interfacing. The response to the policy was good and 15 new entrants obtained licences to run container trains. Due to lack of clarity or inconsistency in matters pertaining to haulage charges, maintenance of wagons, transit guarantees from IR and terminal access charges, operators started feeling skeptical about the viability of the business. This paper examines the current policy environment from the point of view of business viability for 15 new Container Train Operators and brings out issues related to licensing, pricing, terminals, maintenance, and service levels. Keywords: Indian Railways, Container Train Operators, Container Corporation of India, Policy Issues for Container Transport

Empty Container Management in the Benelux Waterways

The scientific contribution of this paper is the development of a model for empty container management in the hinterlands of the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam. The objective of the proposed model is to minimize the total operational cost while satisfying the demand for empty containers. This goal is achieved by choosing the most efficient transportation mode between a seaport and its hinterland: road, inland waterways or intermodal transport. Moreover, to fit the real-life operation and management as well as possible, our model also includes container substitution and container leasing options.Peer reviewe

Optimization of empty container movements using street-turn: Application to Valencia hinterland

Empty maritime container logistics is one of the most relevant costs for shipping companies. In this paper two mathematical models (based on two different container movement patterns, i.e. with and without street-turns) were defined to optimize land empty container movements among shippers, consignees, terminals and depots, along with minimizing storage costs. One of the proposed optimization models was embedded in a simple Decision Support System (DSS) and then tested with real data, based on the operations in Valencia s (Spain) hinterland. The results obtained confirm the benefits of implementing these kinds of models for the company, and additional experiments assess and quantify the advantage of using the more complex approach that is able to implement street-turn patterns.This research has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through Grant DPI2010-16201 and FEDER.Furió, S.; Andrés Romano, C.; Adenso Díaz, B.; Lozano Segura, S. (2013). Optimization of empty container movements using street-turn: Application to Valencia hinterland. Computers and Industrial Engineering. 66(4):909-917. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2013.09.003S90991766

Concepts, Mechanisms, and Algorithms to Measure the Potential of Container Sharing in Seaport Hinterland Transportation

This thesis analyzes how trucking companies of a hinterland region can improve their routes if shipping companies allow the mutual exchange of their containers. In this case, trucking companies that are assigned by shipping companies cooperate by sharing information regarding which locations empty containers are currently stacked. These containers can then be integrated into a vehicle's route of any operating trucking company in the hinterland. The investigation aims at measuring the quantitative potential of the container sharing idea by means of problem settings illustrating realistic hinterland regions of a seaport. As a first step, the impact of street turns on the transportation costs of a trucking company should be measured. By forbidding or allowing the use of street turns for a single trucking company, the potential of the container sharing idea can be indicated, and the interrelation of empty container movements and transportation costs can be shown. As a further step, the benefit of exchanging empty containers between several trucking companies needs to be analyzed. In doing so, it is possible to investigate the potential and realistic limits of container sharing

해운물류에서의 접이식 컨테이너 효과 분석

학위논문(박사) -- 서울대학교대학원 : 공과대학 산업공학과, 2022.2. 문일경.컨테이너 화 이후로 해상 물류는 폭발적으로 증가하였고 세계화와 산업 발전을 선도하였다. 하지만 무역량의 증가와 비례하여 수출입 불균형으로 인한 컨테이너의 불균형 문제도 심화되었다. 이러한 문제를 해결하기 위해 다양한 연구자들의 노력이 있었고, 그 중 접이식 컨테이너라는 새로운 개념의 컨테이너가 개발되었다. 하지만 아직 접이식 컨테이너는 상용화 초기 단계이며, 이를 활용한 여러 효과에 대한 연구는 부족한 실정이다. 본 논문에서는 접이식 컨테이너가 도입되었을 때 미칠 수 있는 영향과 그 효과에 대해 다루었다. 먼저 접이식 컨테이너가 크레인 활동에 미치는 영향을 분석하고, 전역적 관점으로 크레인 활동을 줄일 수 있는 방법에 대해 분석하였다. 두 번째로 육상에서의 접이식 컨테이너 적용이 해상과는 다르다는 점에 주목하여 그 효과를 분석하였다. 마지막으로 2008 금융위기와 COVID-19 이후에 증가하고 있는 해운물류의 각종 변동하는 상황 하에서의 접이식 컨테이너 효과에 대해 새로운 통찰을 제공하였다. 1장에서는 간단하게 컨테이너화와 접이식 컨테이너에 대해 설명하고 문제를 주목하게 된 이유와 그 성과를 서술하였다. 2장에서는 접이식 컨테이너가 도입됨에 따라 생길 수 있는 ‘상단 적재 규칙’이 적용되었을 때의 크레인 활동의 변화를 살펴보고 전역적 최적화가 지역적 최적화보다 효과적임을 보였다. 더불어 전역적 최적화를 도입하였을 때 직면할 수 있는 비용 분배 문제에 대해서도 조망하여 그 해결책을 제시하였다. 3장에서는 육상에서 접이식 컨테이너가 수송공간을 줄여주는 장점 외에 경로를 바꾸는 효과가 존재함을 보이고, 다양한 시나리오와 정책에 따라 그 효과가 어떻게 변화하는지에 대해 분석하였다. 4장에서는 증가하는 다양한 변동상황 각각에 대해 접이식 컨테이너의 효과에 대해 분석하였다. 이를 토대로 각 상황에 맞는 최적 접이식 컨테이너 개수를 도출하고 임대 정책을 통해 대응할 수 있다는 통찰을 도출하였다. 5장에서는 본 논문의 결론과 향후 연구 방안에 대해 서술하였다. 본 논문에서 제안하는 문제와 그 해결 방법은 학술적 및 산업적으로 의미가 있다. 학계에는 실제 존재하는 현장의 문제들을 제시하고 문제를 효과적으로 해결할 수 있는 방법들을 제안한다. 산업계에는 신기술인 접이식 컨테이너의 도입에 따라 발생할 수 있는 문제에 대해 정량화 및 모형화를 통한 해결방법을 제시한다. 본 논문을 통해 산업의 발전과 학문의 발전이 함께 이루어질 수 있을 것으로 기대한다.After containerization, maritime logistics experienced the substantial growth of trade volumes and led to globalization and industrial development. However, in proportion to the increase in the volume, the degree of container imbalance also intensified due to the disparity between importing and exporting sizes at ports in different continents. A group of researchers is digging into resolving this ongoing challenge, and a new concept of a container, called a foldable container, has been proposed. Nevertheless, foldable containers are still in the early stage of commercialization, and research on the various effects of using foldable containers seems insufficient yet. This dissertation considers the possible effects of the introduction of foldable containers. First, we analyze the effect of foldable containers on crane operation and reduce shifts from a global perspective. Second, the effect of using foldable containers in hinterland areas was analyzed by noting that the application of foldable containers on land was different from that of the sea. Finally, we provided new insights into the foldable container under plausible dynamic situations in the shipping industry during the COVID-19 and logistics that have increased since the 2008 financial crisis. A brief explanation of containerization and foldable containers is introduced in Chapter 1, along with the dissertation's motivations, contributions, and outlines. Chapter 2 examines changes in crane operation when the 'top stowing rule' that can be treated with foldable containers is applied and shows that global optimization is more effective than local optimization. In addition, we suggested the cost-sharing method to deal with fairness issues for additional costs between ports when the global optimization method is fully introduced. Chapter 3 shows that foldable containers in the hinterland have the effect of changing routes in addition to reducing transportation space and analyzes how the results change according to various scenarios and policies. Chapter 4 analyzes the effectiveness of foldable containers for different dynamic situations. Moreover, the managerial insight was derived that the optimal number of foldable containers suitable for each situation can be obtained and responded to leasing policies. Chapter 5 describes the conclusions of this dissertation and discusses future research. The problem definition and solution methods proposed in this dissertation can be seen as meaningful in both academic and industrial aspects. For academia, we presented real-world problems in the field and suggested ways to solve problems effectively. For industry, we offered solutions through quantification and modeling for real problems related to foldable containers. We expect that industrial development and academic achievement can be achieved together through this dissertation.Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Containerization and foldable container 1 1.2 Research motivations and contributions 3 1.3 Outline of the dissertation 6 Chapter 2 Efficient stowage plan with loading and unloading operations for shipping liners using foldable containers and shift cost-sharing 7 2.1 Introduction 7 2.2 Literature review 10 2.3 Problem definition 15 2.4 Mathematical model 19 2.4.1 Mixed-integer programming model 19 2.4.2 Cost-sharing 24 2.5 Computational experiment and analysis 26 2.6 Conclusions 34 Chapter 3 Effects of using foldable containers in hinterland areas 36 3.1 Introduction 36 3.2 Single depot repositioning problem 39 3.2.1 Problem description 40 3.2.2 Mathematical formulation of the single depot repositioning problem 42 3.2.3 Effects of foldable containers 45 3.3 Multi-depot repositioning problem 51 3.4 Computational experiments 56 3.4.1 Experimental design for the SDRP 57 3.4.2 Experimental results for the SDRP 58 3.4.3 Major and minor effects with the single depot repositioning problem 60 3.5 Conclusions 65 Chapter 4 Effect of foldable containers in dynamic situation 66 4.1 Introduction 66 4.2 Problem description 70 4.3 Mathematical model 73 4.4 Computational experiments 77 4.4.1 Overview 77 4.4.2 Experiment results 79 4.5 Conclusions 88 Chapter 5 Conclusion and future research 90 Bibliography 94 국문초록 99박

Ocean container transport : an underestimated and critical link in global supply chain performance

With supply chains distributed across global markets, ocean container transport now is a critical element of any such supply chain. We identify key characteristics of ocean container transport from a supply chain perspective. We find that unlike continental (road) transport, service offerings tend to be consolidated in few service providers, and a strong focus exists on maximization of capital intensive resources. Based on the characteristics of the ocean container transport supply chain, we list a number of highly relevant and challenging research areas and associated questions