Optimal design of container terminal gate layout

摘要

Over the last 50 years, international trade of goods has grown significantly in the USA, and as a result, US ports have become bottlenecks in the freight supply chain and logistics. A particular issue that most US ports are contending with is gate congestion (i.e., queuing of trucks outside the container terminal gate). This research provides planners and engineers of container terminals a set of methodologies to design an optimal gate layout to reduce gate congestion. The use of the methodologies to determine the optimal number of service gates is illustrated considering various truck arrival rates, gate service rates, and waiting time thresholds.