Optimal Management of Human Resources in Transhipment Container Ports
Human resources allocation plays a key role in Transhipment Maritime Container Terminals to achieve high levels of productivity and provide high quality services to shipping companies. The deep interest of container terminals in this issue can be supported by optimization methods. In this work, an optimization model is proposed to determine the optimal daily allocation of crane operators and trailer drivers. Different requirements are taken into account for permanent staff, external workers and personnel shortfall. Since workforce undermanning is a crucial factor for both shipping companies and container terminals, we aim to show that personnel shortfalls and operation delays can be signifi…
Design and optimisation of an innovative two-hub-and-spoke network for the Mediterranean short-sea-shipping market
Abstract Short Sea Shipping (SSS) is generally considered as a privileged transport mode in terms of reducing road congestion and related external costs. In the last two decades, SSS has attracted a lot of attention in the European Union, where it is also regarded as a key factor for economic and social cohesion between countries. In this regard, the present study proposes a new network design that aims at improving and increasing freight traffic between the north-western and the south-eastern shores of the Mediterranean Basin. The proposed model, designed for Ro-Ro (Roll-on Roll-off) freight transport, tries to overcome the limits of the existing multi-port-calling services through an inno…
The Heterogeneous Fleet Vehicle Routing Problem with Draft Limits
Over the past two decades, international maritime transport has been characterized by the advent of ever larger ships. This phenomenon is known as naval gigantism. If, on the one hand, naval gigantism allows to reduce transport costs by exploiting the economies of scale achievable by large ships, on the other hand, it implies a series of operational issues. Indeed, due to their large draft, such giant vessels are not allowed to enter small ports when fully or near-fully loaded, and in some cases, they cannot enter such small ports at all. In fact, their draft can strongly vary depending on the load on board. This implies restrictions for vessels in accessing ports, which impact not only at …
Prediction of arrival times and human resources allocation for container terminal
Increasing competition in the container shipping sector has meant that terminals are having to equip themselves with increasingly accurate analytical and governance tools. A transhipment terminal is an extremely complex system in terms of both organisation and management. Added to the uncertainty surrounding ships’ arrival time in port and the costs resulting from over-underestimation of resources is the large number of constraints and variables involved in port activities. Predicting ships delays in advance means that the relative demand for each shift can be determined with greater accuracy, and the basic resources then allocated to satisfy that demand. To this end, in this article we pro…