Optimization of truck appointments in container terminals

Truck appointment has proved to be an efficient tool in reducing congestion at container terminals. To make a reasonable appointment quota plan, it is necessary to take terminal operations into consideration. We develop a novel approach (model) for optimizing a truck appointment system with the objective of decreasing external trucks’ waiting times, at the gate and yard, and internal trucks’ waiting times at the yard. The vacation queuing model is used to describe the coordinated service process of yard cranes. Based on non-stationary queuing theory, truck waiting times are estimated more accurately. Numerical experiments are conducted to illustrate the validity of the model and algorithm. Results show that the model reflects the characteristics of the service process of yard cranes and it improves the calculation accuracy of the truck waiting time.