Truck Carrier Research Articles

DELEGATION OF A DRIVER TO THE TERRITORY OF POLAND: MAIN ASPECTS AND PROBLEMS

In this scientific article, the main aspects and problems related to the process of delegation of drivers to the territory of Poland from a third country are investigated and analyzed. The study focuses on a thorough analysis of the legal, economic and socio-cultural context that defines this process. The article examines the impact of Polish legislation on delegation mechanisms, and also highlights important aspects of the efficiency and security of this process. Additional emphasis is placed on interaction between motor carriers and delegated drivers, as well as on solving possible challenges and problems that arise before the above-mentioned subjects of this process. The article provides practical recommendations for improving the management of delegated personnel and ensuring the effective functioning of this process in the context of the Polish labor market. This study can be useful for Ukrainian trucking companies, academics and legislators interested in improving the system of delegation of workers and solving related challenges. Poland, as a member state of the European Union and a strategic hub of transport routes, plays an important role in the system of international transportation. However, despite these advantages, there are numerous problems faced by drivers and companies carrying out delegation to the territory of Poland from a third country. The article analyzes the basic aspects, challenges and socio-cultural problems that are directly related to the delegation of the driver to the above-mentioned country. On the basis of this analysis, the Ukrainian truck carrier is offered specific algorithms to solve this problem.

Effects of leakage location and ventilation condition on hydrogen leakage during shipping of fuel cell vehicles

In the process of shipping hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, due to the special characteristics of the design and construction of the pure car truck carrier (PCTC) and its working environment, once hydrogen leakage occurs, it is easy to cause safety accidents, resulting in economic losses and human casualties. The current ventilation regulations are only for the shipping of vehicles with internal combustion engines and there are no clear regulations on the ventilation requirements for PCTCs during the shipping of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. First, a PCTC and a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle were selected for the study and the corresponding geometries were modeled. For the scenario of hydrogen leakage in the cabin of the ship, the amount of hydrogen leakage is calculated according to the leakage model. Then, using Fluent software, the diffusion process of hydrogen between the two vehicles is simulated and the variation pattern of hydrogen concentration is concluded. Finally, simulations are carried out under different leakage locations and ventilation conditions to analyze the influencing factors of hydrogen diffusion distribution in the cabin of the ship. The simulation results identify the optimum location for the hydrogen sensors and provide a reference for the setting of safety measures and development of regulations on ventilation requirements when shipping hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

Study on the Resistance of a Large Pure Car Truck Carrier with Bulbous Bow and Transom Stern

The resistance of a large Pure Car Truck Carrier (PCTC) with a bulbous bow and a transom stern is evaluated in the present paper. Several cases at nine different ship speeds in calm water are simulated and results are compared with the experimental measurements. The maximum relative error is 0.93% at a Froude number (Fr) of 0.209. The total resistance coefficient of the ship in calm water shows a parabolic trend with increasing Fr, and it reaches a minimum value at Fr = 0.1794. Furthermore, the cases of the ship in regular waves with six different wavelengths and three wave heights are simulated. It is observed that the total resistance exhibits a quadratic relationship with the wavelength when the wave height is fixed. The wave-making resistance increases with the increase in wave height at any fixed wavelength, and it reaches a maximum value when the wave-length is 1.2 times the ship length (Lpp). Additionally, we also investigated the resistance in three different sea states at four different speeds. When the significant wave height of irregular waves is the same as regular waves, the wave-making resistance under irregular waves is much smaller than that of the regular waves. All of these results indicate that the bulbous bow and transom stern can reduce the wave-making and residuary resistances, which can provide a useful reference for the subsequent design and manufacturing of related ships.

Influence of sea areas and season in navigation on the ship vulnerability to the parametric rolling failure mode

The influence of areas and season in navigation on the ship vulnerability to the parametric rolling failure mode is investigated. The second check of level 2 vulnerability criterion, defined in the interim guidelines on the second generation intact stability criteria (SGISC), is used for the assessment of ship vulnerability to the parametric rolling failure mode. In the framework of SGISC, even ships failing to pass the vulnerability criteria are allowed to operate by implementing the operational limitations. In order to prepare operational limitations related to areas or routes, and season, area-specific and season-specific wave scatter tables are made using Global Wave Statistics. Service speed and major navigation routes/areas of containerships and pure car and truck carriers are determined by analysing global satellite AIS data. Then, the vulnerability is assessed for a C11 class containership and a pure car and truck carrier for the determined limited navigation areas to identify the failure risk depending on the sea areas. Further, the effect of seasonality on the risk of stability failure due to parametric rolling is discussed.

A semi-automated approach to stowage planning for Ro-Ro ships

Stowage planning is one of the most difficult and important operational tasks in liner shipping. To help ship operators make stowage plans safer, this paper presents a semi-automated approach to creating stowage plans for Roll-on/Roll-off (Ro-Ro) ships. Based on the ship’s design data, accurate two-dimensional (2D) models of vehicle decks for stowage planning are established firstly. After the vehicle types for different stowage areas have been specified manually, a more realistic stowage plan is generated using an improved lowest horizontal line searching algorithm, which maximizes the deck utilization with the constraints of obstacles and ramps. Then, the ship’s flotation, stability and strength under the loading plan are assessed by using a practical method verified by Lloyd’s Register (LR) test cases. Finally, computational tests on a 3800 Pure Car and Truck Carrier (PCTC) are performed and discussed, showing that the proposed method can make comparable stowage plans to that given by the ship’s final loading manual and can be used onboard to improve navigation safety.

Empirical Analysis of Multiple-Criteria Decision-Making (Mcdm) Process for Freight Transportation Mode Selection

In Ghana, freight transport is growing continuously every year due to its location and business processes. However, road transport carries 86% of freight despite its numerous negative impacts. Hence, the government has invested in rail transport, with 70% of its capacity is for freight transport in her busy freight transport corridor (eastern transport regions of Ghana). Thus, awareness of criteria considered when deciding on freight transport becomes vital. Hence, this study aims to improve the understanding of the factors of freight transport mode selection in Ghana from the decision-making process by identifying criteria that affect their decisions on mode transportation. The combination of Fuzzy AHP and Topsis is used to find the weights and suggest suitable alternatives for the decision-makers in the Eastern transport regions of Ghana. The result of this study shows that the criteria to consider when selecting freight transport mode in the regions are prioritized in other of Transport cost (0.6544), transport Time factors (0.2562), reliability, and flexibility (0.0605), and security, Risk of damage and lose factors (0.0287). Additionally, the suitable mode(s) of transportation in the stated corridor is owned truck carrier transport compared to the railroad, road-barge, and Contracted Carrier, thus, in descending order. The results provide organizations to prioritize these factors when deciding to select freight transport mode. At the same time, the government must remove some inputs that result in high transport costs, enforce policies, and invest in the appropriate mode.

Research on Layout of Hoisting Points and Control of Hoisting Deformation of Large Stereo Garage Block

This paper takes the dock hoisting technology of the large stereo garage block of 7800PCTC (Pure Car and Truck Carrier, PCTC) as research object. Due to the needs of loading vehicles, this kind of block has large structural size and weight, and the lack of vertical and horizontal bulkhead support in the middle, resulting in weak overall structural strength and structural instability and deformation during hoisting. Firstly, according to the hoisting process principle, three layouts of hoisting points are formulated, and the best hoisting points layout scheme is selected through FE (Finite Element, FE) simulation analysis. After analysing the deformation and structural strength of the section, a targeted temporary strengthening scheme is proposed according to the analysis results. The strengthened FE calculation results show that, the stress concentration and excessive structural deformation under the selected layout scheme are effectively controlled. The calculation results provide a strong guarantee for the hoisting in the dock loading stage.

Direct Strength Assessment of Pure Car and Truck Carrier under Maximum Cargo Loads

Yearly world vehicle production has continued to increase, and the global seaborne trade volumes also are recovering. Based on these positive trends, as demand for cargo ships increases in the freight transportation market, Pure car and truck carriers (PCTCs) with large gaps between decks continue to be ordered. The structural analysis of the cargo hold was performed in order to confirm its structural safety in accordance with the guidance for the direct strength assessment of the Korean Register (KR) of Shipping. And, according to the type of cargo, the maximum deflection and structurally weak area that occurred in deck 5 was confirmed. Also, it was found that the weight of the cargo had a significant effect on the deck, the primary members of the deck’s structure, and pillars. The results of the structural analysis conducted in this study were added to the existing cargo load planning software. This was done so that the prediction of the maximum stress and the deflection of the deck based on the information about the cargo could be confirmed quickly. In addition, the data will be used as the basic data for rapid information management response to changes in cargo items.

Techno-economic analysis of PV systems integrated into ship power grid: A case study

The integration of a photovoltaic (PV) system into a ship power grid has recently become an important strategy of saving energy and reducing emissions from ships. Since the close relationship between the energy derived from the PV system and the navigation plans of ships including location, navigation routes and times, the techno-economic evaluation of the PV systems integrated into ship power grid is very important to ensure their proper application in ships. In this study, a ship-PV grid-connected power system incorporating in the COSCO TENGFEI pure car and truck carrier is selected as a case to conduct a comprehensive techno-economic analysis and an environmental performance assessment based on single and multi-criteria evaluation methods. Taking into account the uncertainty of navigation plan, the techno-economic efficiency of the power system along six main navigation routes are evaluated separately. The evaluation results show that the hybrid power system has high financial feasibility and environmental performance. Furthermore, the Asia-Malacca-Gibraltar-Europe navigation route has the best feasibility while the Asia-Bering-Europe navigation route has the worst feasible among the six main navigation routes. This case study provides a reliable reference for investment of hybrid power system.

МОДЕЛЮВАННЯ ВЗАЄМОДІЇ АВТОМОБІЛЬНИХ ТРАНСПОРТНИХ ПІДПРИЄМСТВ НА МІЖМІСЬКИХ ПЕРЕВЕЗЕННЯХ ВАНТАЖІВ

The transport process of servicing the incoming flow of orders for long-distance freight transportation has been carried out. It was found that the problem of motor vehicles using on long-distance routes is that there are prolonged downtime at loading points while waiting for an order. On the other hand, many orders remain refused due to the lack of free and available transport. Imitation modeling of the activity of the truck carrier is applied, provided that it interacts with the cooperative partners. The model reflects possible actions of the automobile enterprise in cooperation with partners. As the number of transportation orders increases, the carrier leases additional trucks that are used on a "just in time" and "exactly where needed" principle. Inbound orders have a priority of execution. Priority orders are those, which have a longer ride, more traffic, and have a non-random, cyclical nature. When ordering additional vehicles, the number of refused orders increase, as well as the duration of the rides with the cargo. Instead, the unproductive downtime of vehicles is decreasing. The regularity of the change in the number of refusals in transportation and the duration of downtime of its own and rented fleet of road trains have been revealed. The number of leased vehicles required increases to a certain extent with the intensity of the inbound order flow. The quality of customer service is estimated by the refuse rate, the minimum numerical value of which indicates high quality and that the company takes care of customers. The simulation model also took into account the availability of valid orders, so called time windows. Due to the availability of such volume of order information that has arisen, but has not yet been fulfilled, it is the basis for the relocation of the transport to the points, where it is most likely to be loaded. During the reproduction of the transport process an idle run of trucks is allowed. To verify the adequacy of the model, we used practical data on single bulk carrier service in the south-east and central regions of Ukraine. The situation is modeled when the carrier has 6, 12, 28 own vehicles on this territorial transport network, and with the increase in the number of orders - leases additional ones. On the basis of the revealed patterns, the task of structural optimization of the transport process is formulated.

A design and experimental investigation of a large-scale solar energy/diesel generator powered hybrid ship

Due to the increasing demand for energy conservation and the reduction of emissions, renewable energy applications for ships have attracted a great deal of attention. In this paper, a 5000-vehicle space pure car and truck carrier (PCTC) is selected as the research object. Then, on the basis of the existing power system, a unified grid-tied/stand-alone solar system is designed with a built-in battery energy storage system. The system includes a solar energy generation unit, a battery storage system, a diesel generating set, grid-tied/stand-alone controlled inverters, a battery management system (BMS) and an energy management system. According to an analysis of the experimental data, it can be concluded that the use of solar energy hybrid power, in theory, can reduce fuel consumption by 4.02% and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 8.55% a year.

A numerical simulation method for transient behavior of damaged ships associated with flooding

In order to secure the survivability of damaged ships in flooding situations, time-domain simulation is necessary for the quantitative safety assessment, which can predict ship's transient behavior associated with flooding. A numerical simulation method for damaged ships, solving equations of motion with hydrodynamic forces estimated by the semi-implicit MPS (Moving Particle Simulation) for damaged parts and by the potential flow theory for intact parts, has been proposed by the authors (Hashimoto et al., 2013). The validity of the proposed method was demonstrated through comparisons with model experiments in 2-D flooding situations. However it is difficult to apply this simulation method directly to realistic flooding situations because number of particles increases tremendously in 3-D MPS simulation. In this research, the semi-implicit MPS is replaced with the explicit MPS to reduce the CPU cost. In addition, GPGPU (General Purpose computing on Graphics Processing Units) technology is introduced to accelerate the MPS simulation, in which parallel computing runs on GPUs instead of CPUs, so that sufficient number of particles can be used to perform complicated 3-D flooding simulations. In order to validate the developed simulation method, dedicated model experiments are newly conducted. One is a forced roll test for a flooded car-deck compartment and the other is a ship flooding test using a PCTC (Pure Car and Truck Carrier) model. Through comparisons between the model experiment and the numerical simulation, it is well demonstrated that the explicit MPS has good ability to simulate complicated floodwater flows in the car-deck compartment and the developed simulation method can well reproduce ship's transient behavior associated with water flooding.

Design and modeling of a crowdsource-enabled system for urban parcel relay and delivery

This paper proposes a crowdsource-enabled system for urban parcel relay and delivery. We consider cyclists and pedestrians as crowdsources who are close to customers and interested in relaying parcels with a truck carrier and undertaking jobs for the last-leg parcel delivery and the first-leg parcel pickup. The crowdsources express their interests in doing so by submitting bids to the truck carrier. The truck carrier then selects bids and coordinates crowdsources’ last-leg delivery (first-leg pickup) with its truck operations. The truck carrier's problem is formulated as a mixed integer non-linear program which simultaneously i) selects crowdsources to complete the last-leg delivery (first-leg pickup) between customers and selected points for crowdsource-truck relay; and ii) determines the relay points and truck routes and schedule. To solve the truck carrier problem, we first decompose the problem into a winner determination problem and a simultaneous pickup and delivery problem with soft time windows, and propose a Tabu Search based algorithm to iteratively solve the two subproblems. Numerical results show that this solution approach is able to yield close-to-optimum solutions with much less time than using off-the-shelf solvers. By adopting this new system, truck vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and total cost can be reduced compared to pure-truck delivery. The advantage of the system over pure-truck delivery is sensitive to factors such as penalty for servicing outside customers’ desired time windows, truck unit operating cost, time value of crowdsources, and the crowdsource mode.

Shape of Truck Carrier Hard to Overturn by Strong Side Wind

Shape of Truck Carrier Hard to Overturn by Strong Side Wind

Modeling, analysis and feasibility study of new drivetrain architectures for off-highway vehicles

Electrified powertrains/propulsion systems have gained a significant interest in transport industry to develop energy-efficient vehicular systems. In these powertrains, rechargeable energy storage systems (such as High Energy Batteries, Electrochemical Double-Layer Capacitors or High Power Batteries), electric motors, energy management strategies and advanced power electronics converters play an important role in the development of new generations of clean vehicles. Therefore, this paper proposes new drivetrain architectures for Straddle Truck Carriers, as one of off-highway vehicles, which are used in harbors to move containers, in order to improve the Straddle Truck Carriers drivetrain efficiency and to reduce the greenhouse emissions as well as the energy bills. The proposed drivetrains are: (1) series hybrid Straddle Truck Carrier based on a small rechargeable energy storage system (option A), (2) series hybrid based on a reduced internal combustion engine (option B), (3) full electric drivetrain, and (4) new full electric drivetrain based on dynamic wireless-power transfer system.In this paper, an accurate quasi-static model of the conventional Straddle Truck Carrier drivetrain is developed and described in detail. Then, the proposed drivetrain architectures are designed and modeled using Matlab/Simulink. This article also presents the optimal design of rechargeable energy storage systems that can be utilized in those drivetrains. Based on the rechargeable energy storage system type, a thorough comparative study of new Straddle Truck Carrier drivetrains is described in detail. Finally, the developed model and simulation results have been validated with real measurements of the drivetrain.

Cooperation among truck carriers in seaport containerized transportation

Nowadays the majority of goods passing through seaports are transported by road, resulting in a large number of empty movements and high total costs. This paper proposes an optimization model for the cooperative planning of multiple truck carrier operations in a seaport environment for maximizing the total profit derived from their cooperation. A compensation mechanism is introduced to motivate carriers to share their trips. Time windows, trip deadlines and fleet sizes are considered. The planning approach is evaluated using real data sets from the Italian port of Genoa. Numerous scenarios are tested and an extensive computational analysis is reported.

On the estimation of ship's fuel consumption and speed curve: A statistical approach

When fuel efficiency is at stake, along with the reduction of the environmental foot print of air pollution, a need is presented to estimate a ship's fuel consumption for a forthcoming voyage, and means for decision making and for cost saving. This paper suggests an operational approach for obtaining an accurate fuel consumption and speed curve, on the basis of major factors affecting it, namely, ship’s draft and displacement, weather force and direction, hull and propeller roughness. A statistical analysis on 418 noon reports of a Pure Car and Truck Carrier case ship is carried out and the influence of the above factors is calculated. As expected, stronger wind and head weather increases the fuel consumption, and the difference between several weather conditions could be quantified. A simple and accurate algorithm is proposed in order for ship owners, managers and operators to be in a position to apply the suggested method on their fleet. Finally, applications of the structured algorithm are introduced with examples, in estimating the fuel consumption of the case ship for a future voyage, and also the same for a sister ship. Furthermore, voyage planning in several scenarios is proposed in order to assist the stakeholders with decision making aimed to fuel saving and environmental friendliness of their ships.

Parametric roll resonance monitoring using signal-based detection

Extreme roll motion of ships can be caused by several phenomena, one of which is parametric roll resonance. Several incidents occurred unexpectedly around the millennium and caused vast fiscal losses on large container vessels. The phenomenon is now well understood and some consider parametric roll a curiosity, others have concerns. This study employs novel signal-based detection algorithms to analyse logged motion data from a container vessel (2800 TEU) and a large car and truck carrier during one year at sea. The scope of the study is to assess the performance and robustness of the detection algorithms in real conditions, and to evaluate the frequency of parametric roll events on the selected vessels. Detection performance is scrutinized through the validation of the detected events using owners’ standard methods, and supported by available wave radar data. Further, a bivariate statistical analysis of the outcome of the signal-based detectors is performed to assess the real life false alarm probability. It is shown that detection robustness and very low false warning rates are obtained. The study concludes that small parametric roll events are occurring, and that the proposed signal-based monitoring system is a simple and effective mean to provide timely warning of resonance conditions.

Parametric roll mitigation using rudder control

Severe roll angles can be developed by parametric excitation in relatively moderate weather without any apparent pre-warning for the crew onboard. In this study the prospect of using rudder control to mitigate parametric roll was investigated using multi-degree of freedom simulations. A typical modern Pure Car and Truck Carrier was considered and modelled by coupling a roll model with a planar motion manoeuvring model. The combined model was calibrated using in-service, full-scale trials and model tests. Irregular variations of the metacentric height were applied to simulate recorded, full-scale events of parametric roll that have occurred with the considered design. These simulations with rudder roll control showed promising results and demonstrate that the approach could be very efficient for mitigation of parametric roll.

損傷船舶の浸水時動揺シミュレーション手法の構築

Securing the survivability under flooding condition is one of the most important subjects in ship design. For realizing rational and advanced assessment of damage stability, a numerical simulation method is developed for damaged ships by combining the moving particle semi-implicit method (MPS method) and the strip method based on potential flow theory. In this method, the flow field around the damaged part including damaged compartments is computed by the MPS method and that around the intact part is done by the strip method, separately. In order to validate the proposed method, model experiments are conducted for a damaged pure car and truck carrier. Then comparisons of the ship motion and the water flooding into the damaged compartment are conducted. As a result, it is confirmed that the proposed simulation method has good potential for the prediction of dynamic behaviours of damaged ships under flooding condition.