Receding Horizon Approach for Container Flow Assignment in Intermodal Freight Transport

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Receding Horizon Approach for Container Flow Assignment in Intermodal Freight Transport

Li, L. / Negenborn, R. R. / De Schutter, B.

Hinterland haulage between major deep-sea ports and the cargoes’ inland origins or destinations has become an important component in modern logistic systems. Intermodal freight transport integrates the use of modalities (e.g., trucks, trains, and barges) during the freight delivery process to improve the efficiency and reliability of hinterland haulage. In this paper, intermodal freight transport is introduced and existing intermodal container (freight) transport planning approaches are presented. Next, a dynamic intermodal transport network (ITN) model developed by the authors in an earlier work is briefly recapitulated. To deal with the dynamic transport demand and the dynamic traffic conditions in the ITN, a so-called receding horizon approach is proposed to address the intermodal container flow assignment problem between deep-sea terminals and inland terminals in hinterland cargo transport. The proposed approach considers the movement of containers as a flow and makes container flow assignment decisions in a receding horizon fashion during the container transport process. At each time step of the process, behavior of the ITN is predicted by using a dynamic ITN model with load-dependent freeway transport times fed with information on the current and estimated transport demands and traffic conditions. To determine container assignments with this model, a nonlinear optimization problem is solved at each time step. Simulation studies for intermodal container flow assignments are conducted by using an all-or-nothing approach and the proposed receding horizon approach.