Storage space vs handling work in container terminals

Abstract

This paper describes handling and storage strategies for export containers at marine terminals and quantifies their performance according to the amount of space and number of handling moves they require. Identifying a “best” strategy is complicated because the optimization problem is combinatorial in nature—strategies are characterized, among other things, by the order in which future ship arrivals claim preferential space in the storage area. Given a certain traffic, the paper first examines the minimal storage space needed to implement the recommended strategies. This analysis may be of use for long-term planning, helping, for example, with the selection of a handling technology, site locations, or proposed service expansions. At the operational level (i.e. for a given traffic and amount of storage space), the paper also describes how to minimize and predict the amount of handling work.