The outbound container slot allocation based on the stowage plan in rail–water intermodal container terminals

Abstract

In the past, most researchers focused on the storage space allocation problem or container block allocation problem in maritime container terminals, while few studied the container slot allocation problem in rail–water intermodal container terminals. Container slot allocation problem is proposed to reduce relocation operations of containers in railway container yards and improve the efficiency of rail–water intermodal container terminals. In this paper, a novel outbound container slot allocation model is introduced to reduce the rehandling operations, considering stowage plan, containers left from earlier planning periods and container departure time. A novel heuristic algorithm based on the rolling planning horizon approach is developed to solve the proposed problem effectively. Computational experiments are carried out to validate that the proposed model and algorithm are feasible and effective to enhance the storage effect. Meanwhile, some other experiments are conducted to verify that our approach is better than the regular allocation approach, which is a common method in marine and railway container terminals, and container weight is the most important influence factor when storing containers.