Host: Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies
Pages 411
Based on the Vehicle Routing Problem, this paper presents a combined optimization IP model of ship routing and assignment in feeder liner container shipping problem (FLCSP). Existing formulations of ship routing or ship assignment are independent LP or IP, which can not satisfy the optimization of the whole system. While compared to VRP or its variations, feeder liner container shipping problem is quite different, for that FLCSP has to design a periodic service pattern in order to maintain the minimum service frequency and satisfy the container transportation demand in the planning horizon, and need considering simultaneously both the assignment of different types of ships and the determination of routes. A combined Genetic Algorithm is proposed as FLCSP belongs to NP hard problems. The results of the practical experiments indicate that the formulation and algorithm are efficient and effective in reducing the total shipping cost.
