Centralized Operational Strategy for Container Transport in a Synchromodal Transport System

Master thesis (2021)

Authors

V.G. Koev Civil Engineering & Geosciences

Contributors

Rudy Negenborn Transport Engineering and Logistics (mentor)
Bilge Atasoy Transport Engineering and Logistics (graduation committee member)
Mark Duinkerken Transport Engineering and Logistics (graduation committee member)
A.J. van Binsbergen (graduation committee member)
R.B. Larsen Transport Engineering and Logistics (graduation committee member)
Faculty
Civil Engineering & Geosciences, Civil Engineering & Geosciences
Copyright: © 2021 Vladimir Koev
More Info
expand_more

Published Date

13-07-2021

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Faculty

Civil Engineering & Geosciences

Abstract

In time of fast globalization and urbanization, the volumes of transported containers have significantly increased in the last decades. The challenges of operating with high volumes of containers have propagated from the deep-sea terminals into the hinterland network resulting in extensive use of road transportation, long waiting times and high carbon emissions. Synchromodal transport has addressed these challenges by promoting integration of services and real-time decisioning to increase the overall flexibility of the system. However, little is known about the effects of applying flexible concepts on operational planning decisions and whether these decisions have reflection on the performance of the system when centrally taken. This paper proposes a research for a design of an operational strategy which supports operational decisions on container routing and mode choice among trucks and barges. Model Predictive Control planning approach is applied to optimize the simultaneous routing of containers, trucks, and barges. The effectiveness the proposed strategy is evaluated in the presences of increased container volumes and compared to a Benchmark strategy by the means of simulation experiments. The impact of implementing flexible decisions on system performance and realized operational costs is investigated.