Night-time container transport between port and hinterland using a hub with extended opening hours
A case study for the port of Rotterdam
E. de Kerpel (TU Delft - Civil Engineering & Geosciences)
Lóránt Antal Tavaszzy – Coach (TU Delft - Transport and Planning)
S. Fazi – Mentor (TU Delft - Transport and Logistics)
A.J. van Binsbergen – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Transport and Planning)
A. Nadi – Coach (TU Delft - Transport and Planning)
S.C. Pot – Coach (Port of Rotterdam)
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Abstract
A rapid increase in international trade volumes during recent years has led to truck congestion at container terminals’ gates during peak hours. This has consequences on the costs of trucking companies waiting long times behind the gates. Furthermore, it leads to containers arriving too late at the hinterland, a lower port attractiveness and high emissions of idling trucks. One possible policy to deal with this issue is to steer trucking companies towards night-time transport. However, this requires hubs with extended opening hours. The objective of this research is to investigate the implication of such policy further by evaluating and simulating the actors and their (inter)actions in the container transport system. This research uses a combination of qualitative (semi-structured interviews with actors) and quantitative (agent-based modelling, discrete event simulation, queueing theory and discrete choice modelling) methods to assess the impact of hubs with extended opening hours on freight transport under various scenarios. These scenarios compare possibilities for a chassis-exchange or a container hub and investigate the choice of trucking companies to use such hubs. Results determine that if a container hub would be introduced, other actors need to partly pay for trucking companies using the hub so that the hub capacity is fully used. This study reveals concrete recommendations on the type and location of the hubs to mitigate waiting times at terminals' gates and transport more containers per day. For example, a chassis-exchange hub can reduce the total waiting time at four container terminals by 420 hours per day. If trucking companies would invest in a chassis-exchange scenario, the profit is estimated to be around two to four thousand euros per day.