Ports and container terminals have very complex and dynamic operations. Effective and efficient berth schedules are essential for profitable and sustainable operations. This research studies berth scheduling under uncertainties in arrival and handling times. Port operators usually face challenges in the development of berth schedules. This thesis presents a model formulation of discrete berth space that accounts for uncertainty in arrival and handling times. The problem is reformulated as a biobjective bi-level optimization berth scheduling problem. A solution approach is presented using evolutionary algorithms and heuristics. The objective of the formulation is to provide a robust berth schedule by minimizing the average and the range of the total service times for all vessels served at the terminal. Simulation is utilized to evaluate the proposed berth scheduling policy and compare it to two first-come-first-served policies. Results showed that the proposed berth schedules outperform under high congestion. / by Maria Isabel Portal Palomo. / Vita. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

The role of water freight as a sustainable mode of transportation often receives special attention in logistics and transportation. Due to rising environmental concerns UK national policy supports an increase in the amount of freight movements on commercial waterways. Within this context this research investigates the potential for water freight in the South West (SW) UK especially in Cornwall and Devon (CAD). This study is exploratory and following literature searches Delphi methods were selected with which to gather primary data. The research required three rounds of Delphi surveys. Following this, a focus group with the members of the 'Maritime and Waterborne Innovation Group' in the SW UK was conducted to measure the trustworthiness of the Delphi findings. The Delphi study achieved consensus on eight statements. Results indicated that the presence of an extensive coast line with accessibility to several coastal ports is conducive to the effective management of water freight movements in the region. The focus group discussion provided fuller explanations, suggestions and statements of issues which require further exploration for the development of water freight. This study reveals the latest information and possibilities and helped to articulate the importance of using water freight in SW UK. The results of this research also have many implications for the rest of the world where water freight is either in its infancy or aiming to increase its usage. The suggestions, observations and information collected during the Delphi study and from the focus group participants will assist in formulating strategies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of water transportation within a region or a country.

Summary in Chinese. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong. / Bibliography: leaves 123-124.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1980. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Alan Chat-Fun Eng. / M.C.P.

The thesis focuses on the Czech regulation of forwarding contract. The aim of this thesis is to answer the question whether planned legislation in The New Czech Civil Code is type of modern legislation, which takes into account the needs of freight forwarders and international developments in the unification and harmonization of forwarding contract. The answer is based on analysis of the current legislation of forwarding contract, jurisprudence and comparison with regulation abroad.

This study aims to model a regional rail based intermodal transport system and to examine the feasibility of it through a case study for a shipper of daily consumables distributing in an urban area and to evaluate it regarding cost and emissions. The idea of an intermodal line train is that of making intermediate stops along the route thus enabling the coverage of a larger market area than conventional intermodal services, hence reducing the high cost associated with feeder transports, the congestion on the road network and generated externalities. The results of the case study indicate that the most critical parameters for the feasibility of such a system are the loading space utilization of the train and the cost for terminal handling. / <p>QC 20130531</p> / Regional kombitransportsystem i Mälardalen

The objective of this research is to implement multi-modal cost calculations on a freight transportation network, in order to estimate the cost of freight shipments from parts suppliers to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and from OEMs to final consumers involved in the automobile manufacturing industry supply chain. The research will describe gaps in the current freight cost estimation literature, determine the strengths and weaknesses of current practices, and offer possible improvement strategies. The necessary components for this research include: a multi-modal (highway-rail-water-air) network database, the geocoded locations and activity levels of auto industry parts suppliers and OEMs; freight movement cost functions; information on the modes and vehicle/vessel types used for the shipment of certain commodity types; and distance- based travel costs per-mile for these modes. A product of this line of research will be a method that other industries, in other locations, might also use to determine overall freight transportation costs throughout an entire supply chain. The present research effort provides an example using data gathered on the automobile manufacturing industry centered in Georgia and Alabama. The network-based freight costs derived in this research should also be useful in other applications, including the estimation of origin-to-destination flows, as well as in the estimation of transportation costs used in regional and statewide freight planning models.

Companies face competition that comes at them from different directions in the current environment of globalization, deregulation and the push for greater mass customization of products, which still can be differentiated from other products and services. A large number of companies have outsourced a large percentage of their non-core activities in order to concentrate on their core competencies with transportation of their goods being one of the aspects that they have outsourced. Companies are faced with shorter lead times, inaccurate forecasts, unexpected delays in production and need to seek out alternative transportation modes in order to get their goods to market on time. Transportation by air ends up being the best choice to handle requirements of time sensitivity and the transportation of high value goods. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how the air freight supply chain and network that is in place in the Jönkoping region is constructed; in addition to seeking out information in regards to the type of air freight goods being transported into and out of the region; along with the buying behavior and promotion strategies utilized in the promotion of air freight within the region of Jonkoping. The conclusions from this thesis show that there are a number of key actors (integrators and freight forwarders) involved in the air freight network within the Jönköping region. A number of them indicated that the actors they mainly interacted with, in terms of activity links and resource ties, were limited to the airports that were outside of the Jönköping region. There were a few of the actors in terms of integrators that did interact with the Jönköping airport in a capacity that was greater than other actors. In terms of the type of air freight goods that were transported into and out of the region spare parts made up a major portion of the goods transported, followed by clothing and textiles, and other mechanical industry products. The promotion of air freight mostly performed by integrators to their customers is done in terms of emphasizing reliability, punctuality, regularity and security to their customers.

When integer programming (IP) models are used in operational situations there is a need to consider the tradeoff between the conflicting goals of solution quality and solution time, since for many problems solving realistic-size instances to a tight tolerance is still beyond the capability of state-of-the-art solvers. However, by appropriately defining small instances, good primal solutions frequently can be found quickly. We explore this approach in this thesis by studying the design of algorithms that produce solutions to an integer program by solving restrictions of the problem via integer programming technology. We refer to this type of algorithm as IP-based search and present algorithms for network design problems of both real-world and academic interest. Along with algorithms that exploit the structure of the problem studied we also present a general integer programming algorithm that uses column generation to choose the restrictions to solve.

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning