Optimal shipping routes and vessel size for intermodal barge transport with empty container repositioning

Abstract

Despite the growing role of barge transportation in the hinterland access of major seaports in Northwestern Europe, service network design for intermodal barge transportation has received little research attention. In this paper, a decision support model for service network design in intermodal barge transportation is presented. The model determines optimal shipping routes for roundtrip services between a major seaport and several hinterland ports located along a single waterway. Vessel capacity and service frequency decisions may be analyzed by the model. A case study on the hinterland network of the port of Antwerp in Belgium is discussed. The decision support model is applied from the perspective of barge operators as well as from the perspective of shipping lines that offer door-to-door transport services. In the latter case, empty container repositioning decisions are taken into account. Numerical experiments are presented to indicate how the model may be used in practice.

Optimization of postal express line network under mixed driving pattern of trucks

“…The number and locations of different containers were determined considering total transportation cost and total public risk. Braekers et al (2013) studied an intermodal barge transportation problem and determined optimal shipping routes between a seaport and multiple hinterland ports. Besides, Liu et al (2014) concerned the inland O-D delivery with a switch of transport mode from inland transportation to maritime shipping and presented a network design problem of the intermodal liner shipping system.…”

Performance Indicators for Planning Intermodal Barge Transportation Systems

“…Andersen et al (2009a) also looked at the number of vehicles in use, as well as at the number of service departures per week and the duration (number of hours or time periods) of service operations, repositioning moves, and holding vehicles at nodes. Braekers et al (2013) focused on the average cost reduction and vessel capacity utilization, as well as on weekly profit and cost, the weekly number of transported containers, and the percentage of empty containers transported. It is worth noticing that, in addition, they used a particular indicator giving the percentage of volume transported by barge out of the total volume of demand, since some of the demands could be transported by road in their problem setting.…”

Collaborative Fleet Deployment and Routing for Sustainable Transport

“…Braekers et al [29] develop a line bundling MIP model to construct round-trips of barges and assign container flows to round-trips in a tactical planning horizon. The model inputs include the weekly number of trips, and thus the maximum round-trip time, and the number and size of barges.…”

“…We consider a set of barges, b ∈ B, with different cost and capacity characteristics. The cost of operating barges, from a barge operator's perspective, consists of several components, such as assets, crew, fuel, and maintenance [29]. On the other hand, the cost faced by a dry port operator that does not use its own barges is the price scheme proposed by the barge operator, which consists of the above cost components plus a markup.…”