Connected Vehicles and Digital Infrastructures: A Framework for Assessing the Port Efficiency

In logistics and freight distribution, scheduling and cost efficiency are two crucial issues for transportation companies that look with favour at the innovation introduced by Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Moreover, an infrastructure level of service, safety and environmental defence are important for planners and public administrations. In this sense, terminal capacity and landside operations at the maritime infrastructure represent an interesting task for the community. Thus, this paper contributes to the research by: (i) proposing a generic framework for the integration of autonomous and connected vehicles with physical infrastructures; (ii) evaluating the opportunity to manage traffic arrivals according to vehicles’ priority and testing the effects of the introduction of a buffer zone outside the maritime port; (iii) improving efficiency and security within the terminal area by reducing waiting time and avoiding interference between flows. Moreover, the proposal for a discrete-event simulation model to assess terminal capacity in a ro-ro terminal is presented. Therefore, the paper contributes to some critical aspects towards sustainable development. First, regarding policy measures and actions, it proposes a valuable tool to assess what-if scenarios. Secondly, it represents a step forward in the process of smart corridor design for freight vehicles; in fact, it proposes a tool for managing landside operations at maritime ports and focuses on intervention in solving specific barriers and bottlenecks for freight who cross a ro-ro terminal daily. Furthermore, it offers a viable solution for managing connected vehicles in a context where full automation still needs to be achieved. The results evidenced the framework’s capability to deal with the traffic demand, thus improving the efficiency of the terminal landside operations.