Improving productivity of yard trucks in port container terminal using computer simulation

In port container terminals, reducing vessel turnaround time improves the terminal productivity and increases the capacity of world trades across the globe. This time reduction can be achieved by improving one or more container terminal major resources. Much research has been done on improving container terminal efficiency as a means to reduce vessel turnaround time; however, room still available for improvement. Minimizing the empty journeys of yard trucks could improve container terminal efficiency with reasonable time and cost investment. The objective of this research is to maximize container terminal productivity by minimizing vessel turnaround time within reasonable expenses. A handling container strategy is introduced by employing double cycling to reduce the empty travel trips of yard trucks. This double-cycling strategy still requires the use a single-cycle one before the trucks can be incorporated into double-cycle scheduling. The strategy is based on combining the efforts of two quay cranes (loading and unloading) to work as a unit. Simulation is used to test the efficiency of the proposed strategy. Simulation results indicate an improvement in the productivity rate combined with the unit cost savings using yard truck double cycling comparing to the standard single cycle operation.