Simulation model of yard truck double cycling to improve container terminal productivity

In transhipment container terminals, minimizing vessel turnaround time (time to discharge and load vessels) is always the target of the container terminal operators. This time reduction can be achieved by improving one or more of the containers handling equipment's or improving handling strategy. This research aims at maximizing the yard trucks productivity and minimizes the vessel turnaround time by introducing an efficient strategy of handling containers. This strategy based on combining the efforts of two quay cranes to work as a unit to be able to implement yard trucks double cycling. A computer simulation has been used to test the strategy. The Ezstrobe simulation reveals improvements in yard truck productivity when using double cycling comparing to single cycling. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis is implemented and the result indicates more efficiency when using 7 yard truck for storage yard located within a range of 500 - 1500 meters from the berth.