Abstract
In order to reduce the total cost of empty container repositioning, a multi-period empty container repositioning optimization model of the China Railway Express was established by using distributed robust chance-constrained programming based on partial information such as mean and variance of demand. This established model considered sea-land intermodal transportation, uncertain empty container demand and foldable containers. To simplify the model, the distributed robust chance constraints were transformed into equivalent ones that could be easily solved, and the empty container demands were determined. Numerical experiments were carried out to analyze the influence of different parameters on the total cost. The results showed that the total cost could be greatly reduced by sea-land intermodal transportation. Using foldable containers could reduce the total cost of empty container repositioning. With the improvement of service level, the numbers of empty container repositioning increased owing to the distributional robust chance constraints. When standard and foldable containers were used simultaneously, the total cost could be greatly reduced by appropriately using foldable containers under three different supply–demand relationships of containers. The optimization results may provide a greatly feasible reference for the decision makers of the China Railway Express.
Highlights
In 2013, China put forward the “One Belt One Road” initiative to promote economic development.This initiative has greatly facilitated the trade between China and Europe
Based on the above three characteristics, this paper studies the multi-period empty container repositioning optimization problem of the China Railway Express in the three cases of only using standard containers (Case 1), only using foldable containers (Case 2), and using both standard containers and foldable containers (Case 3), aiming at reducing total costs of empty container repositioning
All models were solved by CPLEX 12.6.2, and the i5-6440 CPU processor with a Windows 7 operating system was applied for calculation
Summary
In 2013, China put forward the “One Belt One Road” initiative to promote economic development. This initiative has greatly facilitated the trade between China and Europe. In order to improve the efficiency of cargo transportation, the China Railway Expresses have successfully opened between some cities in China and Europe. By 2017, the China Railway Express had opened 57 routes, covering cities in China and 34 cities in Europe. Chinese cities have become the demand area for empty containers, and European cities have become the supply area for empty containers. How to reduce the repositioning cost of empty containers has become a major difficulty in the actual operation. The optimization problem of empty container repositioning is a practical decision issue faced by liner companies
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