In transportation via containers, unbalanced movement of loaded containers forces shipping companies to reposition empty containers. This study addresses the problem of empty container repositioning (ECR) in the distribution network of a European logistics company, where some restrictions impose decision making in an uncertain environment. The problem involves dispatching empty contain...

Since the 1990s, international supply chains have experienced tremendous progress owing to changes in the division of labour and the globalising economy. In order to enjoy the benefits of free trade, intermodal freight transport system is advocated and introduced to provide efficient just-in-time door-to-door long-distance services in a more environmental-friendly manner. This paper aims to bui...

The integration of ports within logistics and supply chains has become a major issue for both public and private players worldwide. Notably, the role of intermediaries in establishing efficient integration within transport chains in which ports are embedded is not well-known. International comparison is limited by the drastic lack of quantifiable information about inter-firm linkages and interm...

Intermodal freight transportation is concerned with shipping of commodities from their origin to destination using combinations of transport modes. Traditional logistics models have concentrated on minimizing transportation costs by appropriately determining the service network and the transportation routing. This paper considers an intermodal transportation problem with an explicit considerati...

Intermodal transport needs improvements in order to meet the freight transport demand. Information exchange and cooperation among stakeholders are essential to achieve this goal. This paper illustrates a feasibility study aiming to implement an ICT system for logistics in an Italian region, Friuli Venezia Giulia, in order to support intermodal transport connecting the regional stakeholders, in ...

This paper proposes new research themes concerning decision support in intermodal transport. Decision support models have been constructed for private stakeholders (e.g. network operators, drayage operators, terminal operators or intermodal operators) as well as for public actors such as policy makers and port authorities. Intermodal research topics include policy support, terminal network desi...

When dealing with transportation problems Operational Research (OR), and related areas as Artificial Intelligence (AI), have focused mostly on uni-modal transport problems. Due to the current existence of bigger international logistics companies, transportation problems are becoming increasingly more complex. One of the complexities arises from the use of intermodal transportation. Intermodal t...

A sustainable solution to social and environmental problems caused by growing road freight transport is intermodal transport with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to manage all operations in the entire transport chain. The European project GIFTS is developing an open access Internet portal/e-marketplace providing high-technology services to the transport and logistics industry in ...

The concept of flow has become particularly important in logistics and freight distribution. From a simple question of capacity, the issues of timing, frequency and punctuality are now of significant relevance in freight movements since they are part of supply chain management strategies. In particular, transport terminals and freight distribution centers have been the major elements permitting...

This research is motivated by the extraordinary increase in the use of intermodal shipments in recent years for both domestic and global movement of freight. Three mathematical models, which explore the dynamics of intermodal hub-and-spoke networks, are presented. These models use transportation costs, fixed location costs, modal connectivity costs, modal transit times and service time requirem...