Evaluating Capacity Utilization Options for US West Coast Container Ports

Abstract

As global trade continues to recover from the recent economic recession, US container port congestion experienced in the last decade will likely re-emerge. Yet there is limited research that examines network-wide port capacity in support of solutions for minimizing such congestion. To address this gap, we simulate the US West Coast container port network, quantifying the costs and benefits of different options to better utilize current port capacity across the entire network. We specifically assess both efficiency improvement and operational coordination options on historical and future container volumes. The results demonstrate the strength of efficiency as a means to alleviate future port congestion. However, the results also portray inequitable savings across different stakeholders as well as difficulty among these stakeholders in perceiving actual benefits. We discuss the impacts of these challenges on implementation of the capacity utilization options.

Optimizing the Container Truck Paths With Uncertain Travel Time in Container Ports

“…There are abundant studies on container allocation, berth allocation and crane assignment (Zhang et al 2003;Fan et al 2012;Maloni, Paul 2013;Peng et al 2016). Kim and Bae (1998) discussed to reallocate export containers to the best organization for loading vessels.…”

Managing Terminal and Transport Processes with Access Management Services

“…Since this article only focuses on land-based transport, hereafter they will be referred to as "transport." Consequently, due to the differences in volumes and frequencies, a terminal operator, with the help of transport coordinators, must coordinate their terminal and transport processes to prevent congestion (Maloni and Paul 2013) and improve accessibility of terminals (Behdani et al 2016;Sharif, Huynh, and Vidal 2011).…”

“…In today’s transport structures, the management of seaport freight terminals (hereafter “terminals”) is an increasingly important function, one with various consequences for efficiency (Protic, Geerlings, and van Duin 2019; United Nations Conference on Trade and Development 2018). Briefly put, the efficiency of terminals depends upon how terminal operators can manage the large number of different transport operators with corresponding transport processes by bridging the gaps in differences between their volumes and frequencies (Marchet, Perotti, and Mangiaracina 2012; Maloni and Paul 2013; Hultén 1997). Every terminal operator needs to coordinate larger volumes—for instance, transported by mega vessels carrying more than 23,000 containers and arriving less than once per week (Ge et al 2021)—with smaller ones—for example, transported by trains with 120 containers arriving once or twice per week and trucks with three containers arriving once or twice per day (Steenken, Voß, and Stahlbock 2004).…”

“…Given the massive flows of containers that mega vessels deliver to terminals, the terminal operators and the land‐based transport operators (i.e., road hauliers and rail operators) all face major challenges (Meng, Weng, and Suyi 2017; Jeevan and Roso 2019; Mommens, van Lier, and Macharis 2017) in achieving seamless flows of containers (i.e., the utilization of the differences in volumes and frequencies) through their terminals (Marlow and Casaca 2003) to prevent congestion at terminals (Namboothiri and Erera 2008; Gharehgozli, Roy, and de Koster 2016). Since this article only focuses on land‐based transport, hereafter they will be referred to as “transport.” Consequently, due to the differences in volumes and frequencies, a terminal operator, with the help of transport coordinators, must coordinate their terminal and transport processes to prevent congestion (Maloni and Paul 2013) and improve accessibility of terminals (Behdani et al 2016; Sharif, Huynh, and Vidal 2011).…”