A Mathematical Model for Containers Forwarding from Mega-Ships to Dry Ports with Limited Network Capacity and Time Period Dependent Travel Cost Function

This work investigates the impact of mega-ships on the port surrounding network and proposes a mixed integer programming model to optimize the forwarding of containers toward dry port destinations. The aim is to give a decision support for operational planning with limited capacity of both the yard and the network, with respect to the quantity of containers transferred per time unit. The model considers time dependent costs and traveling times to reduce congestion. In particular, congestion is limited by delaying departing times and exploiting the storage capacities of the nodes. As a further novel issue, the problem is modelled as a multi-period network problem where arc costs and traveling times change during specific time slots. More precisely, new linear functions are derived as tangents to the nonlinear convex components of a classical travelling time function proposed in the literature. The model is used to study the container dispatching process in a terminal which is going to be the main Italian container terminal equipped to manage mega-ship traffic.