Download gi-proc-109-010.pdf

Contents : Collaborative Planning in Intermodal Freight Transportation Carolin P ttmann u Institute for Logistics and Transportation University of Hamburg Von-Melle-Park 5 20146 Hamburg carolin.puettmann@uni-hamburg.de Abstract: Very few research efforts have been spent on the coordination of plans and operations of independent carriers in an intermodal transportation chain. The impact of this lack of collaboration and coordination is shown in an accordant scenario and rst ideas are presented to overcome this situation following the principles of decentralized planning. 1 Introduction Intermodal freight transport can be de ned as transportation of goods in one and the same loading unit or vehicle using successively at least two modes of transportation. The different tasks along the transportation chain are mostly executed by several operators that can be distinguished in drayage terminal network and intermodal operators MB04 . Drayage operators are responsible for carrying the freight between shippers and receivers respectively and a terminal. At the terminal the modal shift takes place managed by terminal operators. Network operators take care of the infrastructure planning and long haul transport between terminals whereas intermodal transport operators conduct route selection for shipments through the whole intermodal network. In the following we will not consider the terminal operators but focus on drayage and intermodal operators. Moreover the examination is limited to container transport. Until now very few research efforts have been spent on the intermodal chain and the management of interdependencies among activities e.g. the coordination of plans and operations of independent carriers CK05 . Macharis and Bontekonig MB04 give a review of opportunities in intermodal freight transportation research and state that nearly always distinct operators are treated separately in scienti c attempts. But the many decision makers in the transport chain need to work in collaboration to secure the system to run smoothly and with minimum costs. Therefore more cooperative decision-making support tools are required. Within this paper it is shown that this lack of collaboration and coordination leads to suboptimal results for the whole transportation chain and rst ideas are presented to overcome this situation. 62 2 Description of the Planning Problem A network consisting of various customer locations and a terminal in each of two remote regions A and B is given. The regions are connected via long haul transportation among the two terminals. Any of the three transport stages is operated by organisationally independent transportation service providers: Drayage and network operators. Besides an intermodal operator is committed to plan the transportation of a number of shipments among the regions. In the following we presume an Intermodal Marketing Company (IMC) i.e. an intermediary that provides door-to-door intermodal services by purchasing transportation from a variety of carriers. An order is typically speci ed by a container having a pickup location in A and a delivery location in B and vice versa. Moreover a time window states an earliest pickup and a latest delivery period. Within the regions containers are hauled by motor carriers via trucks that can transport at most one container at a time i.e. full truckload transports are considered. In the following only drayage operators will be examined for coordination because for long haul a regular liner service (e.g. an ocean liner or train service) is presumed. In each planning period a capacity contingent of the carrier A s and carrier B s transportation capacity (in region A and B respectively) is granted to the IMC. Up to this amount the carrier has to ful l the tasks of the IMC at a prede ned price per distance unit for excess capacity a higher price can be charged. Within one region the IMC collaborates exclusively with the carriers i.e. there is no competition but the carriers serve other customers besides the IMC too. Moreover the carriers have the possibility of outsourcing transportation requests. Of course this is more expensive than using own capacity. The aim of the planning problem of this paper is to provide a container shipment plan minimizing the total cost of the transportation chain over a planning horizon while meeting on-time delivery requirements and transportation capacity restrictions. 2.1 Initial Situation Due to private information resulting from the organisational independency the IMC has no knowledge about the carriers capacities given by the number of available trucks and drivers and already accepted orders from customers besides those from the IMC. Consequently transportation plans are generated decentrally and successively: The IMC plans the amount of their transfer orders (AIM C ) based on a mixed-integer programming (MIP) model and the objective of cost minimization meeting given time windows and capacity

INFO HASH : 600cc52feb0dac913e717db49b8f42dea4933b07

Download now

File Size: 103.8 kb