An Agent-based Simulation Tool for Evaluating Pooled Queue Performance at Marine Container Terminals

摘要

Truck queuing at marine container terminal gates is one of the main sources of delay at terminalsand is an area of concern since delays increase the logistical cost of transporting a container.Previous studies on terminal gates focused on the performance of strategies such as theappointment system and extended gate hours. However, there has yet to be a study that evaluatesthe performance of pooling trucks into a single queue at the gates. Previous studies on poolingoffer mixed opinions on whether or not it is beneficial, but none of these studies have attemptedto model the movements of the entities in the queue. In a human system (no vehicles) themovements are not as important since the time to move up one space in the queue is negligible;however, due to the size and weight of the trucks at the gates, the time to move is significant andshould be considered. This study used agent based simulation to model the terminal gate systemwith two different queuing strategies, a pooled queue and non-pooled queues, since analyticalsolutions are not capable of capturing vehicle movements within the queue. Using a car15following model, a realistic representation of how vehicles move within the queue is captured.The developed simulation model was used to evaluate queuing strategies under varyingconditions. Results indicate that using a pooled queue yields significantly lower average queuingtimes and variability in queuing times.