A new method for allocating berths, quay cranes and internal trucks in container terminals

Abstract

This paper proposes a new solution for the simultaneous berth allocation, quay crane assignments and internal truck assignments to quay cranes problems in a container terminal. The insufficient number of internal trucks may cause a delay in transporting containers between the quay side and the storage yard, resulting in low productivity of the quay cranes which in turn affects the handling times of vessels. While most of related studies assume that internal trucks are always available, this paper considers the limited availability of internal trucks when estimating the handling times of vessels. A mixed integer programming model is proposed to simultaneously solve the berth allocation problem, quay crane assignment problem, specific quay crane assignment problem and the assignments of internal truck to each quay crane. Validation of the model against an existing approach is conducted under condition that internal trucks are available. Moreover, the proposed model is validated against a queuing model from literature in case of limited availability of internal trucks.