Utilizing information sources to reduce relocation of inbound containers

Abstract

When road trucks retrieve inbound containers from a container terminal, retrieval operations are often delayed significantly because of the frequent rehandling. We attempt to reduce the number of rehandling operations of inbound containers by using various information sources related to truck arrivals. The sources include dwell time distribution of inbound containers, truck dispatching notice, truck appointment, and real-time position of trucks. Heuristic algorithms are developed to locate and premarshal inbound containers. A simulation study is carried out to test the heuristic algorithms and evaluate the contributions of each information source to terminal performance measures. Practical data on more than 200,000 inbound containers over a period of 8 months and the specifications of the storage yard and rail mounted gantry cranes (RMGCs) of a container terminal in Busan, South Korea, are used for the simulation study. Our results show that the truck system time and number of rehandling operations during a retrieval are, on average, reduced by 47 and 98%, respectively, by utilizing the above information. The truck-dispatching notice, in particular, has a significant contribution to the reductions.