With the increasing need for more sustainable transportation, the electrification of IWW shipping becomes of great relevance. There are several ways to achieve this, from which the implementation of an exchangeable battery system is discussed in this research. Several challenges arise from the large-scale implementation of such a system. One of which is the optimal distribution of the batteries and the location of the docking stations to guarantee electric sailing for a certain demand of vessels. By developing a time-discrete mixed-integer linear programming optimisation model the outputs of this research aim at assessing this. The obtained results showed the optimisation opportunities and possible synergies that can be achieved when vessels share the batteries and charging infrastructure. Though, it is not trivial to determine beforehand the optimal result for different inputs, through different scenario analysis, information that can be useful to assist the strategic decision of the system implementation from a logistic perspective can be obtained. ... Read more

Recent developments in supply chains and supply chain management (SCM) lead to increased complexity and vulnerability of supply chain operations. Therefore, it is needed to better anticipate and prepare for or prevent disruptions from occurring. Increasing interest for the application of machine learning in supply chain (risk) management has been observed, but applicational studies are lacking. Therefore, a generalised methodology consisting of six steps is proposed to introduce and apply machine learning to provide insights in supply chain operations and predictive analytics for supply chain (risk) management. The six steps are: Data collection and exploration, Performance and metric definition, Data preparation and feature engineering, Supplier grouping and feature selection, Data pre-processing and Algorithm comparison and evaluation. The methodology is applied to a case study from Philips Magnetic Resonance and Image Guided Therapy factory with the focus on predicting delivery performance of supplier deliveries by means of classification. Experiments show that the application of the methodology led to successful model development for individual suppliers resulting in binary and multiclass classification models obtaining Matthew’s Correlation Coefficient (MCC) scores up to 0.9 accompanied with 98% accuracy, 100% precision and 83% recall and MCC scores up to 0.75 accompanied with 88% accuracy, 85% macro-precision and 80% macro-recall, respectively. Additionally, feature selection showed the possibility to assist root cause analysis to improve (internal) operations or supplier relations by identifying important characteristics relevant for observed delayed deliveries. However, noticeable differences in performance for individual suppliers is observed, indicating the need for additional research focussing on increasing overall prediction performance (in the specific case study) and therewith direct applicability in operations. ... Read more

Scarcity of maritime container terminal (MCT) capacity can become a problem for global supply chains. Bottlenecks limit the capacity of these terminals and should therefore be detected and alleviated. However, there is no structured approach available in literature to mitigate the effects of bottlenecks at MCTs. Therefore, this research introduces a holistic approach called the bottleneck mitigation cycle (BMC) which consists of three steps: bottleneck classification, bottleneck detection, and bottleneck alleviation. This research provides a proof of concept of the BMC. Scientific value is added by proposing a contemporary and comprehensive classification structure of bottlenecks at MCTs which consists of infrastructural, operational, and managerial bottlenecks. Infrastructural and operational bottlenecks are the focus of this research. Furthermore, while literature often only focuses on alleviation of a single bottleneck and skips bottleneck detection, this research uses the shifting bottleneck method and thereby considers a variety of possible infrastructural and operational bottlenecks. The shifting bottleneck method originates in production networks and is adapted such that it can be applied to detect both momentary and average bottlenecks at MCTs. An empirical approach is adopted to find the cause of the detected bottleneck and to suggest suitable alleviation measures. Application of the BMC to a simulation model of the Fergusson Container Terminal in the Port of Auckland results in productivity improvements of 2-6%. Due to its generic formulation, the BMC is potentially successful in improving performance of MCTs in general which could be confirmed by future research. To make the BMC even more effective and efficient, future research directions are to improve the empirical approach used for bottleneck alleviation and to apply the BMC in real-time. ... Read more

Road freight transport has a major impact on society with external effects such as congestion, air pollution and carbon emissions. Therefore, the European Commission stimulates the more sustainable alternative Intermodal Freight Transportation (IFT). To increase the share of IFT, it is needed to know the performance of the current IFT-network. In this research, a methodology to assess performance of chains in IFT is developed. The developed Weighted Slacks-Based Data Envelopment Analysis model takes into account parallel and overlapping divisions and different structures of chains. The method is tested with a numerical example and a sample of real European IFT chains and solves issues of a compared Data Envelopment Analysis model. The methodology is then implemented to the rail and transshipment part of the North Sea – Mediterranean and Rhine – Alpine freight corridors. ... Read more

In the last decades, the importance of the hinterland transport leg as a component of the overall container transport chain has been recognized by both scholars and industry professionals, specifically from shipping lines. Shipping lines aim to gain market share in the container port hinterlands by means of offering inland transport chain services to their customers, which should be sufficiently attractive based on costs, operational efficiency and provided services. A particular way of improving the inland transport chain is by effectively making use of inland terminals. Inland terminals allow to transport containers through cost-efficient intermodal set-ups and can be used as local storage spaces for customers’ containers. By setting up inland terminals dedicated to the needs of the shipping line and its customers, capacity can be sufficiently committed to import and export container flows and a unique selling point in the hinterland can be created which facilitates the provision of door-to-door services to customers. The location of such an inland terminal within the inland transport
chain is essential; it determines the distances between the terminal and the seaport and shipper/consignee locations, and thus the (cost-)efficiency of the broader transport chain. However, selecting such a location is a complex task in which multiple stakeholders and multiple factors are involved. In that regard, the following research question is formulated: ”How can a shipping line select a location for setting up an own inland terminal in order to increase its control on the container port hinterland?” ... Read more

Due to the increase of global containerized trade and container vessel sizes, the necessity of container terminal development is unavoidable. On the other hand, designing a container terminal is a very complex process, and on a concept design phase, a quick assessment for the design alternatives should be done in a limited time, cost, and effort. Therefore, an automated tool is developed by (Koster, 2019) to ease and accelerate the work of the engineers. However, further development is required for the automated tool, especially for the layout generation tool to also consider area limitations. This research aims to answer the research question: ‘How can a container terminal be designed in the concept design phase while taking into account area limitations?’. The premise is answered by developing an automated tool (i.e. design tool) for container terminal design that consider not only terminal throughput and design rules for the main input but also terminal shape and dimensions. The algorithms implemented within the design tool will correspond for at least four tasks: recognizing the terminal shape and dimension as the boundary condition, modifying container block configuration (either by enlarging/reducing its size), generating the container blocks, and determining the desired output. After the design tool is developed, it will be validated using case studies from existing terminals by comparing several validation parameters: terminal layout, terminal capacity, the number of blocks, blocks configuration, stacking density and stacking orientation. Other than that, the design tool is also reviewed by using three types of applicability: design alternatives for all types of equipment, element calculation & cost estimation from all design alternatives, and changing throughput demand. In this thesis, we can find the development and validation of the design tool that will give us the answer to the main deliverables of a concept design phase. The design tool is capable of presenting container terminal design alternatives and comparing the layout, elements, land use, cost, and capacity for 4 main types of stacking equipment: RTG, RMG, SC, and RS. This would be very beneficial for container terminal stakeholders, not only for determining which one is the most effective and efficient stacking equipment (which depends on the main objective of the terminal; e.g., lower land use, higher throughput, least labour cost, more sustainable, etc.), but also for getting information of main deliverables at the concept design phase: land use and cost. Other than that, this thesis will also show the design tool’s capability of generating different container terminal design for varying throughput demand and providing information on whether the container terminal has reached its area capacity or not. All of these are resulted from the process of an automated tool, making the design process faster and better, which will be very meaningful in this era of continuous uncertainty. All in all, area limitations have a significant influence in the container terminal design process since it is closely related to container block configuration, which also related to the terminal capacity, land use, and costs. Area limitations will also make the design process even more complicated; and thus, the design tool that has been developed in this thesis for generating container terminal design alternatives is one of the answers in solving the problem. ... Read more

Due to a global increase in food consumption and shipping, and regional developments like exploitation of the Vaca Muerta oil field, the port of Bahía Blanca in Argentina sees an opportunity to increase its activities. Therefore, a new container terminal will be constructed in the port of Bahía Blanca that can handle 500,000 TEU per year. This terminal is expected to be competitive to the container terminals in the port of Buenos Aires, which currently are Argentina’s market leaders in container handling. In addition, a shorter entry channel and deeper draft makes the port of Bahía Blanca more attractive than the port of Buenos Aires. Currently, it is unknown whether an increase in container throughput can be attracted from industries in the province of Buenos Aires. This province extends from Buenos Aires to Bahía Blanca, 650 km south of Buenos Aires. Next to that, it followed from qualitative interview sessions that all freight transport in the province is done by truck. As a result, roads are heavily congested during harvest season and for this reason container transport by train is preferred. Other reasons for choosing train as transport modality are the competitive location within the rail network of the port of Bahía Blanca and sustainable character of rail transport. ... Read more

Ports are the most important nodes in the supply chain of cargo and improving their sustainability will positively affect the sector as a whole. This improvement can be achieved by incorporating stakeholders in the process of port development. Social, environmental and economic development achieved together are defined as sustainable development.
In the prospect of sustainable port development, Ethiopia is an interesting country to study because of its rapid and relatively stable economic growth since 2005 and its low logistics performance. This study is built around a dry port expansion project in Ethiopia, for which a 150 million USD loan from the World Bank recently became available. Modjo Dry Port (MDP) is located close to the capital of Ethiopia and its largest production and consumption areas. Before acting directly, the sustainability of the alternatives according to different stakeholders, should be considered. Incorporating sustainable development in the project in general is a significant challenge. This leads to the formulation of a research question. How to evaluate strategic alternatives for sustainable expansion of Modjo Dry Port? This study describes a method on how to develop a number of distinct alternatives, and proposes a framework for the evaluation of sustainable dry port expansion. Such an evaluation tool for the dry port site specifically, does not yet exist. The framework is tested for MDP in Ethiopia.
For the development of the alternatives of MDP, two overarching themes at the dry port were identified: operations are inefficient with dwell time of 50 to 60 days on average, and no diversification of cargo. Based on these themes three alternatives for MDP are defined. For the sustainable evaluation of Modjo Dry Port the Multi-Criteria-Multi-Actor analysis (MAMCA) is used because it explicitly incorporates stakeholder incentives in a more traditional multi-decision criteria analysis (MCDA). The MAMCA consists of seven steps.
Step 1 and 2: Four stakeholder groups for MDP are defined: internal, community, public policy makers and private companies. For the 3rd and 4th step, a framework for evaluation is constructed, based on literature and stakeholders’ input. The criteria are categorised based on the three pillars of sustainability: social, environmental and economic development. In step 5 the weights for the criteria of the evaluation framework are determined by stakeholders. In the last steps of the MAMCA the proposed alternatives were scored against the current layout of MDP for all criteria in the evaluation framework. The final output is a multi-actor view on scoring the alternatives.
Dry ports closer to Addis Ababa are a suitable alternative for MDP. Stakeholder participation is an important part of the study, however, it proved difficult to integrate a sufficient number of stakeholder responses in the analysis.
For MDP specifically, stakeholder groups showed similar interest, and the preference for different alternatives is equal amongst the groups. Analysis shows that the alternatives improving operation efficiency score markedly higher on sustainability. ... Read more

In 2015, the UN climate agreement was signed by the Netherlands, which has the central aim to “strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius” (UNFCCC, 2018). To be able to achieve this, “a reduction of at least 60% of GHGs by 2050 with respect to 1990 is required from the transport sector” (EC, 2011). This research focuses on three methods that were identified by Kaack et al. (2018) for the reduction of emissions in the transport sector: increasing the efficiency of freight vehicles, reducing the carbon content of fuel used to transport freight and shifting freight to low carbon-intensity modes. To be able to stimulate the freight transportation sector to the three alternatives, a pricing policy that includes the CO2 emissions of the modes is identified: carbon pricing (Beuthe et al., 2002). Current literature has studied the influence of a carbon price on the container freight transport in the Netherlands while focusing on the modal shift (Zhang et al, 2014; Zhang et al, 2015) or researched the effects of internalizing the external costs on the Belgium freight transportation network (Beuthe et al, 2002). Furthermore, the influence of a carbon price on the potential for urban freight electrification in Madrid was researched by Arroyo et al. (2019). This research contributes to clarifying the effects of carbon pricing on the Dutch freight transportation. As current studies mainly focus on either the effects on the modal shift or the effects on the use of alternative fuels, these do not consider a combination of the effects and do not take into account the increase in the efficiency of the freight vehicles. Furthermore, the current literature focuses on a particular niche market (e.g. only container or a certain region). This research takes a broader view and looks at the influence of the carbon price on all commodities that have an origin, destination or both in the Netherlands. The main research question of this research is: HOW CAN THE FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION NETWORK USE IN THE NETHERLANDS BECOME MORE SUSTAINABLE, CONSIDERING MODAL SHIFT AND ALTERNATIVE FUELS? Currently, most freight is transported by trucks, which is a more expensive mode but has a high network density and enables faster transportation as there is no need for transhipment between modes (Platz, 2009). Inland waterway (IWW) is the second most used mode for freight transportation in the Netherlands (CBS, 2019b). IWW is a cheaper mode, but the transport is dependent on the available ports in the waterways network and is a slow mode of transportation. Rail freight transportation is used the least in the Netherlands (KiM, 2016). The rail mode can be cheap, however transhipment is expensive. Next to that, the trains are dependent on the railways service stations and do not reach high speeds due to inefficiencies (Islam & Zunder, 2018; Janic, 2008). When looking at the emissions of the modes, a clear difference between the emissions is identified: trucks emit up to 2.5 and 5 times more CO2 than IWW and rail respectively (KiM, 2016). This results in an unsustainable distribution: the mode that emits the most emissions is used the most while the most sustainable mode is used the least. ... Read more

Currently last mile parcel delivery is becoming more and more of an issue. More people are ordering their goods online, these goods need to be delivered to home address in urban areas. Using the parcel lockers of PostNL this research looked into the question how to make last mile logistics more cost efficient and sustainable using parcel lockers. Having used CEA, MCA and simulation this research has proofed the possibility to deliver parcels more cost efficient in the last mile using parcel lockers, as well as the possibility to reduce delivery drivers due to the usage of a separate parcel locker route. ... Read more

Intermodal Inland Waterways Transportation (IIWT) has been the first alternative to reduce the dependency on road transportation in the Netherlands. However, with the growth of freight shipping demand, several problems have been faced by IIWT: small size barge’s congestion and insufficiency of inland terminal handling’s capacity. The idea to implement collaboration models between the involved operators has been suggested which is assumed to give an impact on the performance level. These impacts have not been clearly defined for each different collaboration model. Hence, this study aims to show the different characteristics of each collaboration models and how they affect the performance level of the operators. Simulation gaming is utilized as the research tool with the consideration that this approach can facilitate the interaction between the players and the system. This interaction is important as it illustrates the condition in the real market. ... Read more

Zutphen is a city in the Netherlands, located along the IJssel River and the nautical access of the Twentekanaal. Despite its beneficial location, Zutphen barely uses the inland waterways for freight transport. This lead to the objective of this thesis: To provide insight how a viable inland waterway terminal be realized in Zutphen’s business park De Mars to improve its freight connection.
After analysing the regional and local infrastructure and transport flows, it was found that the best opportunities arise for the development of an intermodal inland waterway transport (IWT) connection, including an inland container terminal in Zutphen. A reliable intermodal transport service can only be realized if the terminal operator has access to a sufficient and constant flow of cargo volumes to be transported. Cargo can only be attracted if shippers are willing to make a modal change.

A framework consisting of several analyses was presented to assess the feasibility of an inland container terminal in Zutphen. Based on input from these analyses, three technical designs of proposed terminal solutions were worked out. A terminal solution is considered to be feasible if a business can be found for a private investor. For each of these alternatives, a financial assessment was worked out to determine whether a business case can be found. Based on the results of the financial assessment, a recommendation is given to the municipality. ... Read more

This research aims to predict the stop times of vehicles during last mile deliveries. Also, it aims to identify the effects of the most important parameters that influence the stop times. The specific case of DHL Parcel, the Netherlands is used for this purpose. The report also tries to set a standard to estimate the stop times for future deliveries. ... Read more

Bahía Blanca in Buenos Aires province is located 600 kilometres south of Buenos Aires city. The port complex of Bahía Blanca has the second largest throughput in Argentina considering tons, mainly attributed to the agro – and petrochemical industry. The port handles containers as well, however with an average of 30 thousand TEU/year this throughput is rather small. The authority of the Port of Bahía Blanca sees opportunities to increase container throughput in the port due to recent developments in the region. The container throughput is estimated for 2040, considering the petrochemical cluster and fruits. Four different trends show a container throughput of respectively 30, 155, 250 and 360 thousand TEU/year. The capacity of the container terminal is estimated at 50 thousand TEU/year, based on the equipment, the dwell time and the terminal area. The terminal should improve when throughput will increase. To start, number of calls and call size are assumed based on future throughput, decreasing the average dwell time for export containers. Additionally, a larger quantity and more advanced equipment is required to handle the increase in throughput. Lastly, the terminal area itself can be increased significantly from 8ha to 22ha in its maximum configuration. The increase in storage area allows the capacity to grow from 50 thousand TEU/year to 215 thousand TEU/year. It is important to realize that further expansion of the terminal is not possible and a new location has to be considered. A multi criteria analysis in combination with a financial analysis on the possible location showed that two out of four possible new locations are suitable for the development of a new container terminal. The new container terminal should have the capacity to handle the expected container throughput generated locally. The possibility to attract additional cargo to the port was researched as well, since the Port of Bahía Blanca has an advantageous depth compared to the Port of Buenos Aires. However, on the short term it is not expected that Bahía Blanca can profit from the draught limitations in Buenos Aires since port calling cost are almost the same, Buenos Aires is located conveniently and not operating at capacity and current shipping routes are not expected to change their routes majorly. ... Read more