Reducing container barge in-port times

Abstract

Global containerised cargo volumes are increasing at a high rate, requiring ports to increase their throughput. Containers are transported to the hinterland by truck, train, or barge. In the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, container barges have high in-port times, of which they spend a lot of time ineffectively. This affects these ports’ connectivity with the hinterland. The goal of this research, therefore, is to identify the main causes for, and most promising measures against, high barge in-port times. These causes and measures were gathered by desk research, using scientific literature, technical reports, and interviews with stakeholders.
To assess the importance of different causes and compare different measures, a simulation model was built, based on Rotterdam. Because there are many deep-sea terminals and barges that each make their own planning, and many aspects of the in-port operations are subject to stochastics, Simio was used to make an agent-based simulation model. Although many factors contributing to high in-port times were found in the literature, the majority of them contribute to two overarching causes: there is insufficient barge handling capacity at deep-sea terminals, and coordination problems result in inefficient utilisation of the available capacity. Therefore, many measures that are suggested in the literature aim to mitigate the negative effects of the two main causes.
The current state of the system was replicated in the model, in order to understand the response of in-port times to various system changes. Experiments evaluated changes to terminals’ barge handling capacity by increasing the capacity, or by changing how current capacity is distributed over time. The number of calls barges make on average was changed. Additionally, the effects of market mechanics on the in-port times of barges with different levels of willingness-to-pay were assessed, by auctioning timeslots or allowing barges to submit priority requests. Finally, increased information sharing and instantaneous reservations were implemented as an experiment.
The findings indicate that increasing handling capacity at terminals can strongly improve barge in-port times. Without increasing capacity the system can also be improved by increasing the information that is exchanged between agents, thereby influencing the way agents interact. Finally, implementing a priority system can reliably reduce in-port time for barges willing to pay for that service, without negatively impacting the average in-port times of the whole system.