A decision-support framework for the stowage of maritime containers in inland shipping

The typical voyage of a barge transporting maritime containers inland, consists of visiting a set of terminals where loading/unloading operations occur. The required stowage plans must meet stability requirements during all transport phases and avoid costly re-handling operations. In this paper, we formalize this problem and consider a typical dry-port transport system. We propose a comprehensive mathematical model that seeks to maximize stowed containers. To solve it, we develop a hybrid metaheuristic approach, based on local search and an industrial solver. Numerical experiments, based on real-world data, provide insights into the performances of the proposed framework and current stowage practices.