Multi-port vs. Hub-and-Spoke port calls by containerships

Akio Imai, Koichi Shintani and Stratos Papadimitriou

Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 2009, vol. 45, issue 5, 740-757

Abstract: This paper addresses the design of container liner shipping networks taking into consideration container management issues including empty container repositioning. We examine two typical service networks with different ship sizes: multi-port calling by conventional ship size and hub-and-spoke by mega-ship. The entire solution process is performed in two phases: the service network design and container distribution. A wide variety of numerical experiments are conducted for the Asia-Europe and Asia-North America trade lanes. In most scenarios the multi-port calling is superior in terms of total cost, while the hub-and-spoke is more advantageous in the European trade for a costly shipping company.

Keywords: Container; transportation; Empty; container; Network; design; Mathematical; programming (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (40)

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