Vehicles arrive to collect and deliver containers at common-user port container terminals without appointments and generally have to queue for service. Vehicle booking schemes offer a means of controlling the arrival times of vehicles to smooth the demand on container handling resources, and could enable improved service standards to be achieved. Surveys of vehicle arrivals and service have been carried out at two UK common-user terminals and the effects of booking on service standards have been estimated, using a computer model to relate the turn-round times of vehicles to their arrival patterns, terminal throughput and the deployment of handling resources. The consequences for terminal users of the need to make appointments at the terminals have also been examined. Although practical booking systems would enable improved service standards to be achieved at the throughputs found in the surveys, they would lead to only small reductions in the total resource cost of container handling at the terminals because of the additional staffing costs incurred in running the systems. Booking would have greater benefits at higher throughputs than those found in the surveys or at terminals with more irregular vehicle arrival patterns. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting