Abstract
BackgroundWith the steady growth of trade between China and Europe, the number of trains in CHINA RAILWAY Express has steadily increased under the Belt and Road Initiative. By the end of 2019, more than 21,000 trains have been operated. However, in the development of CHINA RAILWAY Express, the cost of empty container transportation and leasing remains high. So, it is necessary to put forward the strategy of container sharing.AimThrough the optimization of empty container transfer and rent under container sharing, this study aim to reduce the operation cost and put forward the strategy of container sharing.MethodConsidering the dynamic characteristics of empty container transportation in reality, this paper constructs a multi-period empty container transportation optimization model with the lowest total cost and the stability of the network, combining with the container sharing strategy. Lyapunov optimization method is used to transform the complex problem into a single period optimization problem, and then genetic algorithm is used to solve the model.ResultBased on the analysis of 13 existing regular train companies, the results show that the model can effectively improve the utilization rate of containers and reduce the cost in the decision-making period. Based on the results and parameters analysis, some suggestions are put forward to optimize the empty container sharing and effectively realize of container sharing.
Highlights
With the steady growth of trade between China and Europe, the willingness of China to strengthen cooperation with Europe has risen
Empty container transportation is one of the phenomena caused by the government subsidies which are anti-market behavior and eager to improve the operation scale of China Railway Express. only a few cities have sufficient return cargo sources, and most of the cities have the problem of unbalanced number of return trains, which leads to a considerable number of empty containers unable to be transported back after unloading abroad, and the problem of empty container transportation is serious
Through the example of 13 train companies, it is concluded that the total cost of empty container acquisition under the strategy of container sharing is lower than the total cost of empty container acquisition under the condition of container not sharing, and the container stock is significantly reduced
Summary
Based on the analysis of 13 existing regular train companies, the results show that the model can effectively improve the utilization rate of containers and reduce the cost in the decision-making period.
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