On yard space allocation for export and import containers

In this paper the yard space allocation problem of container terminals is addressed. Firstly a mixed integer model which is applied to allocate depot space for export and import containers is established. The model aims to determine the storage bay for the arriving containers with the objective of minimizing the moving distance of trucks and balancing the workload of gantry cranes in the different yard area of the front/rear yard. Considering facilitating the practical operation of the yard, buffer zones are respectively established in the front and rear yard in order to accelerate the loading /unloading operation for vessels and improve the utilization of storage space. Then the optimization software lingo is employed to solve a simulating data case of the problem. The result shows that the method proposed in this paper can not only minimize the total travelling distance of container trucks in the terminal, but also guarantee balancing the workload of gantry cranes in the different yard area of the front/rear yard.