Academic literature on the topic 'Inland Container Depot(s)'

The Chinese project One Belt One Road, in Europe often referred to as the New Silk Road, triggers infrastructural investments enabling seamless transportation of goods on the Eurasian route. Since most of these goods are transported in containers, the optimal location of inland container depots, where containers wait for future repositioning after they had been emptied at the importers, is an interesting problem. In this paper conditions determining the optimal location of inland container depots in the Polish part of the NSR are analysed. They include proximity of container transhipment terminals located on the Polish stretch of the NSR, structure of highway network enabling distribution of containers by trucks to other destinations, as well as green aspects mainly referring to avoidance of city congestion caused by trucks transporting containers.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to figure out in which way a hinterland-based inland depot model can help a shipping company in solving the empty container problem at a regional level. The repositioning of empty containers is a very expensive operation that does not generate profits. Consequently, it is very important to provide an efficient empty container management. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the empty container problem is discussed at a regional repositioning level. For solving this problem, a mixed-integer linear optimization model is developed and validated by using the German hinterland as a case. Findings The findings show that the hinterland-based solution is able to reduce the total system costs by 40 per cent. In addition, total of truck kilometres could be reduced by more than 30 per cent too. Research limitations/implications This research is based on German data only. Originality/value This paper closes the gap in empty container repositioning research by looking at the hinterland dimension from a single shipping company point of view.

This paper aims to find out the role of Bangladeshi ports in South Asia for developing integrated intermodal freight transportation system to mitigate the demand of port transport in the region through container from port to inland container depot or dry port or inland container terminal even from/to shipper/consignee premises. The strategic location of Bangladeshi ports in the Bay of Bengal are lucrative for the international traders, investors and others to invest in the port industry as well as manufacturing industry to develop international trade in South Asia especially in India, Nepal , Bhutan and Bangladesh . In addition, Bangladesh has opportunity to serve Myanmar through coastal shipping and road haulage of containers. In here, port rivalry among the ports of Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka is described to focus the importance of Bangladeshi ports also to get the real scenario of port facilities in South Asia. At the end of the paper, deep port initiative is attributed to connect with the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative of China. Finally, in the view of intermodal freight transportation and port competition in the regions, future directions are stated for Bangladeshi ports to compete with others in the South Asian region.

Purpose Marine transportation has been faced with an increasing demand for containerized cargo during the past decade. Marine container terminals (MCTs), as the facilities for connecting seaborne and inland transportation, are expected to handle the increasing amount of containers, delivered by vessels. Berth scheduling plays an important role for the total throughput of MCTs as well as the overall effectiveness of the MCT operations. This study aims to propose a novel island-based metaheuristic algorithm to solve the berth scheduling problem and minimize the total cost of serving the arriving vessels at the MCT. Design/methodology/approach A universal island-based metaheuristic algorithm (UIMA) was proposed in this study, aiming to solve the spatially constrained berth scheduling problem. The UIMA population was divided into four sub-populations (i.e. islands). Unlike the canonical island-based algorithms that execute the same metaheuristic on each island, four different population-based metaheuristics are adopted within the developed algorithm to search the islands, including the following: evolutionary algorithm (EA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), estimation of distribution algorithm (EDA) and differential evolution (DE). The adopted population-based metaheuristic algorithms rely on different operators, which facilitate the search process for superior solutions on the UIMA islands. Findings The conducted numerical experiments demonstrated that the developed UIMA algorithm returned near-optimal solutions for the small-size problem instances. As for the large-size problem instances, UIMA was found to be superior to the EA, PSO, EDA and DE algorithms, which were executed in isolation, in terms of the obtained objective function values at termination. Furthermore, the developed UIMA algorithm outperformed various single-solution-based metaheuristic algorithms (including variable neighborhood search, tabu search and simulated annealing) in terms of the solution quality. The maximum UIMA computational time did not exceed 306 s. Research limitations/implications Some of the previous berth scheduling studies modeled uncertain vessel arrival times and/or handling times, while this study assumed the vessel arrival and handling times to be deterministic. Practical implications The developed UIMA algorithm can be used by the MCT operators as an efficient decision support tool and assist with a cost-effective design of berth schedules within an acceptable computational time. Originality/value A novel island-based metaheuristic algorithm is designed to solve the spatially constrained berth scheduling problem. The proposed island-based algorithm adopts several types of metaheuristic algorithms to cover different areas of the search space. The considered metaheuristic algorithms rely on different operators. Such feature is expected to facilitate the search process for superior solutions.

Abstract Four 6-day simulations of the atmospheric conditions over the Arabian Desert during the time of the 1991 detonation and release of toxic material at the Khamisiyah, Iraq, weapons depot were performed using a mesoscale model run in a data-assimilation mode. These atmospheric simulations are being employed in a forensic analysis of the potential contribution of the toxic material to so-called Gulf War illness. The transport and concentration of such surface-released contaminants are related strongly to the planetary boundary layer (PBL) depth and the horizontal wind speed in the PBL. The product of the PBL depth and the mean wind speed within it is referred to as the ventilation and is used as a metric of the horizontal transport within the PBL. Thus, a corollary study to the larger forensic analysis involves employing the model solutions and available data in an analysis of the multiscale spatial variability of the daytime desert PBL depth and ventilation as they are affected by surface forcing from terrain elevation variations, coastal circulations, and contrasts in surface physical properties. The coarsest computational grid spanned the entire northern Arabian Desert and surrounding areas of the Middle East, and represented the large-scale PBL modulation by the orography. The PBL depths were greatest over the high elevations of the western Arabian Peninsula and over the Zagros Mountains in western Iran and were shallowest over water bodies and the lower elevations in the Tigris–Euphrates Valley. Higher-resolution grids in the nest (the smallest grid increment was 3.3 km) showed that the PBL depth minimum in the Tigris–Euphrates Valley was likely a consequence of compensating subsidence associated with the thermally forced daytime upward motion over the Zagros Mountains to the east in Iran, with possible contributions from an elevated mixed layer. Further local modulation of the daytime desert PBL occurred as a result of the inland penetration of the coastal sea-breeze circulation on the west side of the Persian Gulf, where PBL depths were suppressed as far as 100 km inland. On the finest scales, significant PBL-depth variability resulted from surface thermal differences associated with contrasts between barren desert and partially vegetated desert. The average 1500 LT ventilation over the Arabian Desert for the 6-day period varied spatially from less than 4000 m2 s−1 to over 24 000 m2 s−1. This range represents over a factor-of-6 variation in the ability of the atmosphere to transport contaminants away from a source region.

Ahmedabad Container Depot (ACD) was a fast growing inland container depot (ICD) in Ahmedabad. The area of the depot was 15 acres and it had a monthly turnover capacity of approximately 25,000 containers. The primary processes at the facility were imports, exports, and transshipments. ACD had been facing various challenges due to inefficient manual container tracking system at the facility. Due to good business, the company was able to reach 90–95% of its capacity which was also the main problem ACD had to deal with. The management wanted to increase efficiency by reducing the number of moves required to locate a container by implementing a technology solution. The Head IT of ACD, Bhavik, was examining proposals from vendors and had identified a few alternatives. He was also considering the options that other large container yards had used successfully. His dilemma was to determine the feasibility of the alternatives, particularly those which had not been tested by any other firms in the country. Also, implementing technology could cause a change in roles and responsibilities; dealing with that situation was another area of concern.

Container terminal capacity is a crucial issue for port and terminal operators nowadays as it is one of the key points for their success and increasing their competitive market position in the maritime industry. Therefore, researchers have tried to find solutions for the over capacity problem that faces many terminal operators. This research suggests dry ports as one of the most suitable solution for this problem through proposing a structured framework to adopt the right policy decisions for Dry Port location and capacity. To achieve the presented framework some areas were addressed in detail to have the full picture clear. The current status of the global container sector was assessed, also, the main capacity problems of container terminals with a view to reviewing the suggested solutions was investigated, hence the need for dry ports. In addition, policies for providing optimal location and capacity decisions for container terminals were identified. A technique that supports assessing container terminal location and capacity policy decisions with particular reference to dry ports were developed. Moreover, a case study on Alexandria International Container Terminal for validating the results was conducted. The current research was facilitated by experts from the maritime transport industry, through the application of the Delphi Technique. Applying such a technique enables collaborating experts to share experience modify statements and re-asking to reach a final exact answer that could be generalized. The consensus achieved will help build knowledge and understanding of potential Dry Ports’ policies of the maritime transport sector. This research seeks to make an original contribution to knowledge by developing a structured framework to identify policy decisions for location and capacity of Dry Ports using a Delphi technique as a support tool for terminal managers and operators, port planners, policy makers, and investors in deciding decisions relevant to Dry Port investment.

碩士
國立高雄第一科技大學
運籌管理研究所
99
The change of industrial structures since 1990s by moving most of Taiwan’s heavy industry to mainland China has a negative impact on inland container depot (ICD) industry in the Northern Taiwan. In addition, the launch of Taipei Port Container Terminal Corporation in 2009 also has a major strike on ICD industry in the Northern Taiwan. ICD operators have to consider transforming their business as they are facing the heavy loss of their cargo sources. Average capacity utilization rate is less than 50% for these ICD operators. This research firstly reviews literatures and then interviews shipping experts to come up with the following four transformation alternatives, changing ICDs to residential and commercial complexes, change ICD into technology parks or creative parks, developing ICDs into a free trade zone, and transforming ICDs into distribution centers. The first part of this study was conducted based on AHP technique and questionnaires were distributed to senior executives of local ICD operators and local academicians. First part of the survey questionnaire is composed of two core business resources, assets and capabilities. The research result reveals the order of business transformation priority perceived by ICD executives and academicians is as follow:(1)Distribution Center, (2)Free Trade Zone, (3)Technology or creative park, and (4) Residential-commercial complexes. The second part of the survey was based on both AHP method and fuzzy theory. The second part of this research findings suggested the order of ICD business transformation priority perceived by local community is as follow: (1) technology or creative park (2) residential-commercial complexes (3) Free Trade Zone, and (4) Distribution Center.