Storage space sharing among container handling companies

This paper discusses the possibility of sharing container storage space among different container handling companies in a port. For the implementation of storage space sharing, this study proposes methods for allocating shared spaces efficiently to participating companies and for allocating costs to them. Two cost allocation methods, which are based on a linear programming (LP) model, are proposed: one using dual variables of the LP model and the other using the Lagrangian multipliers of the relaxed LP model. It is proved that the cost allocation, determined by the two methods, is an imputation in the core of the cooperative game. Using numerical experiments, it is shown that a heuristic cost allocation method based on the Lagrangian multipliers satisfies ideal properties that the competitive, as well as, the cooperative game should have.