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This paper evaluates an alternative queuing concept for marine container terminals that utilize a truck appointment system (TAS). Instead of having all lanes providing service to trucks with appointments, this study considers the case where walk-in lanes are provided to serve those trucks with no appointments or trucks with appointments but arrived late due to traffic congestion.

To enable the analysis of the proposed alternative queuing strategy, the queuing system is shown mathematically to be stationary. Due to the complexity of the model, a discrete event simulation (DES) model is used to obtain the average waiting number of trucks per lane for both types of service lanes: TAS-lanes and walk-in lanes.

The numerical experiment results indicated that the considered queuing strategy is most beneficial when the utilization of the TAS lanes is expected to be much higher than that of the walk-in lanes.

The novelty of this study is that it examines the scenario where trucks with appointments switch to the walk-in lanes upon arrival if the TAS-lane server is occupied and the walk-in lane server is not occupied. This queuing strategy/policy could reduce the average waiting time of trucks at marine container terminals. Approximation equations are provided to assist practitioners calculate the average truck queue length and the average truck queuing time for this type of queuing system.

Several freight operations rely on human cognition and behavior. Tackling these aspects, gamification transforms activities to resemble game-like experiences. Since the freight transportation sector is rapidly adopting gamification, the purpose of this study is to provide an overview that synthesizes the state-of-the-art and plot future directions for research and the practice of gamifying this area.

A systematic review of the gamification of freight transportation was conducted. After screening 691 studies, 40 relevant studies were analyzed.

Most studies found positive psychological and behavioral outcomes from gamification. Literature mainly focused on tackling the operational-level issues of road and maritime transportation modes by implementing simulation games.

Besides elaborating how gamification can improve freight transportation, the authors describe directions still uncovered by the current corpus, such as research design and temporality and the variety of modes and tasks.

Practical implications emerged from the studies, primarily focusing on understanding users, tasks and contexts, targeting different audiences and transportation modalities, and balancing motivational affordances, while considering the demands of the freight transportation domain, including dynamic, spatially dispersed environments and cooperation between multiple stakeholders.

The transportation of goods dominates much of the global economy and ecology. Therefore, gamifying this domain has a huge societal impact potential, especially related to issues of sharing economy, safety, environmental sustainability and social media.

Beyond providing an original overview of gamified freight transportation, this study maps current research gaps and describes practical recommendations.

This paper presents a generic simulation model to determine the equipment mix (quay, yard and intra-terminal transfer) for a Container Terminal Logistics Operations System (CTLOS). The simulation model for the CTLOS, a typical type of discrete event dynamic system (DEDS), consists of three sub-models: ship queue, loading-unloading operations and yard-gate operations. The simulation model is empirically applied to phase 1 of the Yangshan Deep Water Port in Shanghai. This study considers different scenarios in terms of container throughput levels, equipment utilization rates, and operational bottlenecks, and presents a sensitivity analysis to evaluate and choose reasonable equipment ratio ranges under different operational conditions.

Cross-docking is a supply chain distribution and logistics strategy for which less-than-truckload shipments are consolidated into full-truckload shipments. Goods are stored up to a maximum of 24 hours in a cross-docking terminal. In this chapter, we build on the literature review by Ladier and Alpan (2016), who reviewed cross-docking research and conducted interviews with cross-docking managers to find research gaps and provide recommendations for future research. We conduct a systematic literature review, following the framework by Ladier and Alpan (2016), on cross-docking literature from 2015 up to 2020. We focus on papers that consider the intersection of research and industry, e.g., case studies or studies presenting real-world data. We investigate whether the research has changed according to the recommendations of Ladier and Alpan (2016). Additionally, we examine the adoption of Industry 4.0 practices in cross-docking research, e.g., related to features of the physical internet, the Internet of Things and cyber-physical systems in cross-docking methodologies or case studies. We conclude that only small adaptations have been done based on the recommendations of Ladier and Alpan (2016), but we see growing attention for Industry 4.0 concepts in cross-docking, especially for physical internet hubs.

This present study uses political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental (PESTLE) analysis and the strategic management theory to examine how external factors, namely the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the industrial revolution (IR) 4.0 technologies, the fuel price crisis and Sultanate of Oman Logistics Strategy (SOLS) 2040, affect the performance of container terminals in Oman.

A hybrid decision-making method that combined the analytical hierarchy process technique and Bayesian network model was used to achieve the objective of the present study.

The COVID-19 pandemic (54.60%) most significantly affected the performance of container terminals in Oman, followed by IR 4.0 technologies (19.66%), SOLS (17.00%) and fuel price crisis (8.74%). Container terminals in Oman were also found to perform “moderately,” considering the uncertainty of external factors.

This study enriches existing literature by using PESTLE analysis to assess the impact of the external business environment on firm performance in the context of the maritime industry as well as highlights how challenging external environmental factors affect the performance of container terminals in Oman.

This study contributes to developing novel study models and determining the performance level of container terminals in Oman considering integrated uncertainties and external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, IR 4.0 technologies, the SOLS 2040 and the fuel price crisis.

This study assessed the contribution of containerization to the development of Western Ports, Lagos Nigeria. The aim was to assess the influence of containerization on some indices of port development such as port infrastructure development, ship turnaround time, cargo dwell time and congestion. Questionnaire was used to gather information on the contribution of containerization to change in maritime trade in the country, the influence of containerization on terminal expansion, congestion, level of investment in container port infrastructure as well as the influence of such investment on container dwell time and ship turnaround time (TAT) and the competitiveness of container terminal within Nigeria port systems and with other developed container ports of the world. Secondary data used included statistics of reports of operations of Western Ports between 2000 and 2010 as reported by NPA, as well as reports of some selected ports derived from Containerization International Year Book, which were used in this study for the sake of global reference. Summary tables and ANOVA for the analysis of the data. Results revealed a significant contribution of containerization to maritime trade relative to the ports’ annual records but with no significant influence on ship turnaround time, cargo dwell time congestion which are determinants of port productivity and competitiveness. The study concluded that Western Ports have still not reaped gains of containerization and lacking in competitiveness when compared with other developed ports of the world.

This paper examines the port of Mombasa’s attempted implementation of computer-based terminal operating systems (TOS); the challenges faced and the outcomes. In addition to enhancing its operations efficiency, a key motivation for the technology was to facilitate better integration and connectivity to the Belt and Road as a key gateway along the key route. It utilised a qualitative single-case methodology, involving a combination of semi-structured interviews, non-participant observations and content analysis of relevant policy documents and reports provided by the port. The paper finds that the attempt to adopt and implement TOS at the port mostly failed as a result of a complex combination of technological, organisational and environmental factors. Most importantly, the wider business environment was ill equipped with the necessary information communication technology (ICT) infrastructure to support effective implementation. There was also a general lack of appropriately skilled workers to support and drive the same.

Congestion at Ghana’s main seaports is a problem that has received much attention recently. This is as a result of continuous increase in containerized cargo. To increase the capacity of Ghana’ seaport, the Ministry of Transport through the Ghana Shippers Council initiated the Boankra Inland Port Project. The aim of this paper is to assess the feasibility and economic effects of implementing the Boankra Inland Port as a solution to reduce congestion at the main seaports, as well as reduce transportation cost.

The location of the inland port was assessed using the gravitational model. Data for the gravitational model are distances from the main seaports in Ghana and Boankra Inland Port to major hinterland destinations and population of the destinations. Also, 210 respondents were selected and interviewed on contribution of the dry port concept to the economy and transportation management in Ghana.

The results of the gravitational model support the location of Boankra as an inland port. A further comparison between Tema and Takoradi shows that Tema has a better location as a distribution center than Takoradi.

Although Tema and Takoradi are the main seaports in Ghana, the implementation of the Boankra inland port will reduce the transportation cost for cargo with hinterland destinations, therefore making it a rational and cost-efficient location for transit transportation.

This paper is among the first significant attempts to evaluate the suitability of inland port implementation in Ghana.

Due to the globalization of trade, hundreds of millions containers pass every year through world ports. Such a situation is extremely challenging in terms of securing freight transport operations. However, costs and lead-times are still very important components of supply chains' performance models. Therefore, the drive for enhanced safety and security cannot be made at the expense of these other two factors of competitiveness, and the processes implemented by the global supply chain links, including the maritime port one, should tend to a joint optimization of trade facilitation and operational safety / security.

The research on which this paper feeds back falls within the frame of this mixed performance requirement. More specifically, the paper presents a decision-support system dedicated to managing the risks associated with land and maritime container transportation; this system is based on the modeling of the knowledge of a group of experts, and covers the three phases of risk identification, assessment and avoidance / mitigation.

Autonomous ports and digital ports are a modern trend of global commercial ports that are established to develop toward smart ports in many ports. Smart port indicators (SPIs) are used as important tools for measuring, encouraging, and indicating smart port performance. These are the main indicators to operate smart port management as the practical direction and port development planning are enclosed. This research aims to identify the SPIs and to develop a conceptual model of smart port performance in a case study of The Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) in Thailand. Triangulation data are used in the data collection with three sources: the reviewed literature of five international databases in 2016–2021, participant observations, and in-depth interviews. Content analysis is utilized to analyze these data to develop a conceptual model approach. The findings of this research are shown in three main domains classified as smart port operation, smart port environment/energy, and smart port safety/security. These indicators represent 29 SPIs for developing smart port performance, which can be explained with a conceptual model. This information will exist as the foundation framework guiding Thai smart ports towards international standards of smart port efficiency.