Optimization of container transportation in port hinterland with trucks : approaches to cooperation

Abstract

Logistics in the hinterland of ports account for up to 80% of the total cost of the maritime logistics chain. Therefore, optimizing hinterland logistics offers large potential for using infrastructure resources more efficiently, for reducing emissions and costs, and for providing high quality hinterland services to increase competitiveness. Cooperation is one promising approach here.

A mathematical model for the operative optimization of container transportation in port hinterland with trucks, considering cooperation, is presented. It is discussed how costs in hinterland container logistics with trucks can be reduced by using horizontal cooperation, i.e. by sharing customer orders, and how stable and long-term-oriented cooperation can be established. A setting is considered in which each trucking company has its own customer orders, some of which it is willing to share or pass on to others, but only at a certain price or compensation. To enable and promote stable and long-term cooperation, fairness is important; therefore, different fairness constraint groups are modelled and implemented. Moreover, different constellations of so-called “trust groups”, i.e. groups within which an exchange of orders may take place, are studied. The effects of cooperation under these different conditions are quantified, compared and analyzed.

The analysis shows that different degrees of cooperation, i.e. different sizes of trust groups and different intensity of order exchange, as well as different fairness constraints have a strong and varying impact on the efficiency of the system, e.g. in terms of cost and emission reduction as well as with respect to the distribution of orders and profits among the trucking companies.