TY - JOUR
T1 - Combinable containers
T2 - A container innovation to save container fleet and empty container repositioning costs
AU - Shintani, Koichi
AU - Konings, Rob
AU - Imai, Akio
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Combinable containers can either be used as a standard 20 ft or in combined state as a 40 ft container by altering the dimensional to match the cargo size. This paper examines the viability of combinable containers for saving the container related costs. We present a model of a minimum cost multi-commodity network flow problem that can be used to simultaneously determine the fleet sizes of standard and combinable containers and their empty container allocation/repositioning. Based on numerical experiments, we discovered that mixed use of both types of containers can save a significant portion of container related cost.
AB - Combinable containers can either be used as a standard 20 ft or in combined state as a 40 ft container by altering the dimensional to match the cargo size. This paper examines the viability of combinable containers for saving the container related costs. We present a model of a minimum cost multi-commodity network flow problem that can be used to simultaneously determine the fleet sizes of standard and combinable containers and their empty container allocation/repositioning. Based on numerical experiments, we discovered that mixed use of both types of containers can save a significant portion of container related cost.
KW - Combinable containers
KW - Container fleet management
KW - Container fleet sizing
KW - Container transportation
KW - Empty containers
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85072273393&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.tre.2019.09.004
DO - 10.1016/j.tre.2019.09.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85072273393
SN - 1366-5545
VL - 130
SP - 248
EP - 272
JO - Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review
JF - Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review
ER -