Optimization of Inland Container Transportation with and without Container Sharing

In this contribution we optimize the transportation of containers in the hinterland of a local area with one terminal and one depot for empty containers and trucks. There are several customers who want to receive goods by inbound containers and several customers who want to ship goods by outbound containers. Additionally, there are empty inbound containers and empty outbound containers. We present two different models corresponding to different scenarios for the transportation processes performed by a homogeneous and limited set of available trucks. In the first scenario (distinct container problem) empty containers are exclusively used by their owners and therefore must be sent to their predefined destinations. In the second scenario (shared container problem) empty containers can be interchanged among several owners and therefore can be arbitrarily used. By comparing the model for the distinct container problem with the model representing the shared container problem the benefit of container sharing can be analyzed.