Dynamic and Stochastic Shipment Matching Problem in Multimodal Transportation

Abstract

Multimodal transportation, as an efficient and sustainable alternative to unimodal transportation, refers to the utilization of multiple modes, the utilization of standard loading units, and flexibility in planning. The complexity of multimodal transportation at the operational level lies in being able to deal with dynamic events that are unknown before their realization. However, stochastic information on some of the events might be available from historical data. This paper proposes an anticipatory optimization approach to handle dynamic shipment requests in multimodal transportation by incorporating stochastic information of requests’ origin, destination, volume, announce time, release time and due time. The experimental results show that the anticipatory approach outperforms a myopic approach in which decisions are made only based on deterministic information in reducing total costs under various scenarios of the multimodal matching system.

A Global Intermodal Shipment Matching Problem Under Travel Time Uncertainty

“…In the literature, most similar to our work are the work of Demir et al [1] and Guo et al [4]. Demir et al [1] investigated an inland intermodal service network design problem with travel time uncertainty.…”

“…In comparison to [1], this paper considers fixed time schedules of multimodal services in a global network, and develops a model that integrates acceptance and matching decisions. Guo et al [4] studied an inland intermodal shipment matching problem with request uncertainty. In comparison to [4], this paper considers travel time uncertainty in a global intermodal network.…”

A Cooperative Intermodal Transportation Network Flow Control Method Based on Model Predictive Control

“…Guo et al [30] proposed an online match platform between shipment requests and transportation services, and a rolling horizon approach and a heuristic algorithm were developed to handle the matching problems in hinterland synchromodal transportation dynamically. What's more, they also presented approaches with predictive information that perform better and proposed an anticipatory optimization approach for the matching problems [31]. Some other researches focus on the construction of integration platform [32].…”

Fuzzy Approaches and Simulation-Based Reliability Modeling to Solve a Road–Rail Intermodal Routing Problem with Soft Delivery Time Windows When Demand and Capacity are Uncertain

“…Therefore, to make the road-rail intermodal routes applicable, the routing optimization should consider the restrictions of the above-mentioned schedules. However, road transportation is unrestricted in time and is more flexible than rail transportation [7]. The coordination of the two kinds of transportation modes is the key to a successful route plan.…”

“…By changing modes between road and rail, the road-rail intermodality can take advantage of the cost-efficient and low-emission rail transportation and meanwhile perform good mobility and flexibility using road transportation [4,5]. Therefore, in recent years, as an efficient and sustainable alternative to the traditional road transportation that dominates the freight industry [6], road-rail intermodal transportation has been widely utilized in transportation services [3], to control logistics cost, improve service level, and enhance sustainability [7,8]. Nowadays, road-rail intermodal transportation is developing rapidly, especially in Eurasian transportation corridors in which the freight demands are substantially motivated by the Chinese One Belt One Road initiative [3].…”