Cooperative Partner Selection Research Of Container Supply Chain Under Multimodal Transportation

The globalization of economy and trade has accelerated the moving of materials and finished products throughout the world. Meanwhile, containers and multimodal transportation has been widely applied in such long-distance transport between countries and across oceans, which has given rise to the concept Container Supply Chain. Coupled with this phenomenon is intensifying competition in transport market and the fact that different transpotation modes are operating independently. With the purpose of building complete transportation chain and lay the foundation for transport union, from the perspective of multimodal transport operator, this dissertation makes selections of carrier focusing on specific transportation mode in every section during the operations of container supply chain and establishes partnerships with carriers. Door-to-door transport of container cargo can be achieved through this way.Based on the analysis and integration of related theories and concepts, the connotation of container supply chain is defined. After proposing the functions and characteristics of container supply chain, the network structure and operation process of container supply chain are stated. Then the research objects, multimodal transport operator (MTO) and different carriers, are introduced.By summarizing the influencing factors of cooperative partner selection, the paper put forward two two-stage models, namely, partner selection model without preference for arrival time and partner selection model with preference for arrival time. For the first model, there are two stages. In the first stage, based on the consideration for carriers’ independence and reason, MTO uses Dijkstra shortest path algorithm to screen plans according to the total time (transport time and transit time) and uses subsidy mechanism to update and negotiate plans. Then multimodal transportation network is set up that conforms to time regulation. In the second stage, it mainly uses 0-1 integer linear programming model to divide sections, choose segmental transport mode and carrier, which is aimed at optimizing the total cost (transport cost, transit cost and risk-averse cost). This approach helps construct container supply chain of overall optimization and realize partner selection.Then the model considering preference for arrival time is set up to improve former model from the perspective of customer. Aimed at consignee preference for the arrival time of goods, fuzzy time window is brought in and it establishes a relationship between service satisfaction and arrival time. On the basis of service satisfaction target of MTO, time constraint condition is corrected. The problem of partner selection is finished after solving the revised model.In the end, the paper sets the transport of container supply chain from China to the U.K. as an example to test the model. And in this case study, the selection results under different parameter values are evaluated and compared. Such analysis can give political and strategic proposals to the nation and help develop highway-railway and sea-railway transportation. At the same time, suggestions for multimodal transport enterprises can be made to select cooperative partners and lay down business strategy and criterion of service level.