Container Scheduling considering Customer Satisfaction in the Context of Internal Circulation

Abstract

As China’s foreign trade continues to progress, a trade surplus in inland container transportation has emerged. At the same time, businesses need to not only focus on transportation tasks but also prioritize customer service requirements. To address the issues of container supply shortages and inefficient empty container allocation, this article establishes a container truck scheduling model that includes multiple terminals and yards. With the objective of minimizing total costs and maximizing customer satisfaction during the allocation process, the model incorporates coupling constraints between vehicle flow and container flow. Instance verification using Cplex demonstrates that the proportions of different cost types and the range of expected time windows can impact the formulation of transportation plans and, consequently, total costs. Lastly, numerical experiments are conducted to analyze the cost variations and transportation plan preferences under different ranges of time windows and different weights assigned to transportation costs and fixed costs.