Minimizing fuel usage of straddle carriers in container terminals

We consider a container port, which consists of multiple terminals all run by the same terminaloperator. The terminal operator provides a number of vessel lines with the logistics services of container unloading,loading, transporting and storing. He faces the combined decisions on strategic, tactical, and operationallevel to provide a certain service level while running its operations with the smallest possible amount of resources.Since these combined decisions are often too complex to be solved at once, the problem is often dividedinto a number of subproblems, which are then solved subsequently, or alternatingly where possible. Existingstudies subdivide the combined problems in container operations according to the common categorization andsubsequently solve strategic, tactical and operational problems. In this research however, we propose a typicallydifferent subdivision, such that each subproblem i) can be solved within the time allowed, ii) has not yet beenaddressed in literature, an iii) is practically interesting in its own right. In this paper, we address this uniquesubdivision in general and one of the resulting subproblems in particular: minimizing the fuel usage of thestraddle carriers by intelligent berth and terminal planning. This research has financially been supported bythe terminal operator PSA HNN in Antwerp, Belgium. Results of a case study suggest significant reductions inthe fuel usage of the straddle carries. Currently, results of this research have actually been implemented in oneof the terminals in Antwerp.