Time-window based Truck Appointment System with Adaptive Slot management and Real-Time Truck Information

Time-window based Truck Appointment System with Adaptive Slot management and Real-Time Truck Information: A case study for the loading operations in a Chemical Plant

Skoulas, Vasileios (TU Delft Civil Engineering & Geosciences)

Tavasszy, Lorant (graduation committee)
van Duin, Ron (mentor)
Duinkerken, M.B. (mentor)
Vanga, R. (mentor)

Delft University of Technology

Transport, Infrastructure and Logistics

2024-01-19

Long truck queues and congestion around terminals is a common sight, however they come with many negative externalities for all the stakeholders involved. Truck Appointment System (TAS) is the most commonly used system to face these problems, but it still has some drawbacks and limitations. Consequently, in this research an extension of the typical TAS is proposed in order to improve its performance. The main components of this system are the use of truck dependent time-windows, the utilization of real-time information and the adaptive trucks rescheduling model. The duration of the arrival time-windows is longer than the actual service times, allowing overlap between time-windows. Thus, the actual service sequence might be different from the reserved one. To determine the actual loading sequence an Optimization model is developed, which is run periodically while utilizing real-time truck information. A chemical plant is used as a case study in this research. The performance of the proposed TAS is assessed with the use of a Simulation model. The outcomes of this research suggest that the a less strict TAS can significantly improve the system’s performance, especially trucks’ waiting times. Also, the system’s resilience against disruptions and the plant’s environmental footprint are improved, while queues are reduced.

Truck Appointment System (TAS)
Truck Arrival Management System
Time-window
ETA
Real-time Information
Rescheduling
Slot Management
Chemical plant
Optimization model
Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP)
Simulation model

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e4870113-975f-4fa1-96dd-1e6d0f061e29

Student theses

master thesis

© 2024 Vasileios Skoulas