Optimal Transportation Mode Decision for Deterministic Transportation Times, Stochastic Container Arrivals and an Intermodal Option

For container transport from an overseas port to the final customer destination, the decision whether the transport should be by direct truck or by an intermodal option, including train and truck, is rather relevant. An optimization problem minimizing transportation costs and delay costs is developed. For unknown container arrival times, deterministic transportation times and a predefined container delivery date, the optimal transportation mode is discussed. For a predefined train departure time, the relationship between unplanned truck delivery if arrival time is after train departure and expected delay for later train departure times is shown. For the intermodal option, an optimization problem minimizing transportation and expected delay costs is solved. Results show that there is a certain delivery date threshold above which the intermodal option becomes optimal. A counter-intuitive finding from the numerical results indicates that better information quality does not necessarily favour the intermodal option. Especially for low delivery date values, the additional cost to be paid for the intermodal option increases with better information quality.