Allocation Of Dedicated Berths Considering The Cooperation Between Liner Shipping Companies On Different Types Of Ship Routes

With the continuous development of the global shipping economy,container transportation has become an indispensable pillar industry in the transportation industry.The significant increase in national container throughput has not only accelerated the turnover rate of global cargo transportation,but also led to an increasing number of ships arriving at ports and terminals.For liner companies,the increase in ship turnover time in port not only increases the fuel consumption cost and crew operating costs while waiting,but also increases the sinking cost caused by waiting.Therefore,in the context of increasingly severe port congestion,renting dedicated berths to reduce waiting time for ships in the port has gradually become a strategic choice for liner companies.Due to the drawbacks of high cost and insufficient berth utilization in renting dedicated berths,this article will study from a strategic perspective how to allocate dedicated berths for a group of liner companies formed through cooperation.At the same time,in order to improve the flexibility of liner company cooperation and consider the actual situation of significant differences in ship types on different types of ship routes,this article will study the allocation of dedicated berth resources from the perspective of how different liner companies cooperate when combining different types of ship routes,and construct a dedicated berth resource allocation model that considers the stability of liner company cooperation.When solving the model,this article designs a solution method based on a combination of queuing theory and cooperative game theory.Firstly,queuing theory is used to describe the queuing systems of different liner groups under different ship route types;Then,the stability of the liner group is constrained through cooperative game theory;Finally,based on the stability strategy between liner companies,the CPLEX linear solver is used to solve the dedicated berth allocation model.Through the analysis of a case study at Shanghai Port,this article validates the effectiveness of the model and solution methods,and obtains the results of how five liner companies choose cooperation objects,form liner groups,and rent dedicated berths under four shio routes(15 combinations of ship routes): the Asia Europe ship route,the Trans Pacific ship route,the Southeast Asia ship route,and the China Japan South Korea ship route.Based on a large amount of data from four shio route types and all combinations of five liner companies,the proposed grouping cooperation of liner companies in this article has obvious advantages.It can not only effectively improve the utilization rate of dedicated berths,but also reduce the turnover time of liner companies in the port.When combining ship routes,it can also be found that the Trans Pacific ship route and the Asia Europe ship route are more suitable for combination,while the Asia Europe,Southeast Asia,and China,Japan,and South Korea ship routes are more suitable for combination.Through parameter sensitivity analysis of berth operating costs and ship in port costs from the perspectives of liner companies and ship route types,it was found that liner companies have a much higher sensitivity to berth operating costs than ship in port costs;Moreover,the Southeast Asian ship route type has a higher sensitivity to the cost of ships in port,while the Eurasian ship route has a higher sensitivity to the operating cost of port berths.At the same time,sensitivity analysis of parameters can also provide different insights for port and shipping enterprises in adjusting the rental of dedicated berths and adjusting relevant parameters for different ship route types.Finally,the results of this article can also provide a novel theoretical framework for studying the cooperation between liner companies and the allocation of dedicated berth resources.