Designing container yard management systems

Abstract

Freight transportation plays an important role in modern logistics, as one of the co-operating processes involved in production chains. In this context, an interesting research field is intermodal transport, which is defined as the movement of goods in the same loading unit or vehicle, using successively several modes of transport without direct handling of the goods. In an integrated freight terminal of a transportation network changing of either the means or the mode of transport should be supported by suitable freight information systems and involve decisions. In this work, the authors focus on the management of containers in port terminals. In particular, the features of an information system supporting decision making activities involved in terminal management are discussed. Finally, the problem of optimising the container allocation on the terminal yard is investigated.