Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: We propose a new logistics concept for rail-based container transportation where, instead of booking individual slots on specific trains (which is the current state of the art), customers only specify from where to where they want their containers to be delivered, as well as appropriate time windows for pickup and delivery. A containers actual transportation route is then chosen by a freight forwarder based on the availability and compatibility of freight trains. We provide an optimization algorithm based on an integer linear programming formulation that can be used to find globally optimal transportation schedules for a given set of containers. Our computational experiments show that this new paradigm can significantly reduce the number of trains required for serving a given container transportation demand, improving the logistic systems’ overall environmental and economic efficiency.
Authors: Ulrike Ritzinger, Georg Brandstätter, Lukas F. Krasel, Matthias Prandtstetter
Institution: AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH
Language: English
Topic: Maritime Ports and Logistics
Subfield: Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,890
Award: G8186226151
OpenAlex ID: W4405689011