Abstract
Efficiency challenges of the hinterland connectivity, along with growing green concerns necessitate the integration of economic goals and environmental considerations, for port-hinterland logistics problems. This study focused on innovative modeling, for a three-mode port-hinterland intermodal freight distribution system, from the perspective of shippers. A hybrid distribution network topology, combining point to point, hub-and-spoke, and connected hubs was designed as route alternatives for loads from origin to destination. A bi-objective decision framework involving analytical scenarios of emissions limitation, emissions taxation, and an emissions trading scheme, was developed for policy analysis, and then applied to a real-life hinterland logistics network in the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China. The results showed that the implementation of the three emissions policies, all resulted in great changes in flows between intermodal routes and achieved emissions reduction goals. Nevertheless, the conflict between logistics costs and carbon emissions, differs from policy to policy. Some inflection points were identified to offer decision supports on policy insights, for the port-hinterland distribution network. Lastly, a sensitivity analysis on cost and emissions parameters was given. It revealed that the flow changes and trade-off relationship between economic and environmental objectives, were both sensitive to the road transportation mode.
Highlights
Increasing international container volume worldwide, due to the intensification of global trade is creating pressures on maritime shipping, and on the port-hinterland connections, which stimulates shippers to develop competitive container supply chains to move cargoes more efficiently [1,2,3]
The modeling approach was based on a generic port-hinterland distribution network problem, which consists of a lot of nodes of inland cities (IC), inland waterway terminals (IWT), inland railway terminals (IRT), gateway seaports (GP), and transport links of road, waterway, and railway
Taking the example of 97.5% grandfathering in Table 4, the result shows that when the model is tested with the permit trading prices from $1 to $36, the modeled total emissions generation is always higher than the given cap
Summary
Increasing international container volume worldwide, due to the intensification of global trade is creating pressures on maritime shipping, and on the port-hinterland connections, which stimulates shippers to develop competitive container supply chains to move cargoes more efficiently [1,2,3]. Containerization and the emerging maritime shipping network have helped the maritime logistics services of global supply chains to become very efficient, the efficiency of the hinterland logistics system, which connects manufacturing and consumption regions to the maritime shipping part still faces challenges. In this context, intermodal transportation emerges and has developed as a significant choice to compete with road transportation in the movement of cargoes in hinterlands [5,6,7]. This situation allows the possibility of various intermodal transportation forms including road-rail, road-barge, rail-barge, and barge-rail, etc
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