Collaborative fleet deployment and routing for sustainable transport

Efficient multi-modal transportation in the hinterland of seaport terminals depends on consolidation of container volumes in support of frequent services of high capacity means of transport, such that sustainable multi-modal transport can compete with uni-modal road transport in cost and time. The tactical design of barge scheduled transport services involves fleet selection and routing through the inland waterway network. The resulting network service design should meet expected demand and service time requirements set by the shippers. We develop a tight MILP formulation for the Fleet Size and Mix Vehicle Routing (FSMVRP) especially adapted for the Port-Hinterland multi-modal barge network design. Also, an analytical model is developed to help understand important design trade-offs made. We consider the case of horizontal cooperation of dry port container terminals that share capacity. Our results show that in case of cooperation, both cost savings and service levels are improved, and allow for sustainable multi-modal transport to be competitive with uni-modal truck transport.

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