Multi-commodity multi-service matching design for container transportation systems

Synchromodal transportation comprises the promising idea of integrated planning and real time switching while considering cost efficiency, time effectiveness and environmental impact. As the foundation of real time switching, integrated planning has been researched at the operational level. The intermodal routing choice problem is the major problem at the operational level. From an integrated planning perspective, it is typically defined as a multi-commodity multimodal routing choice problem. This paper proposes to consider the routing choice problem as a multi-commodity multi-service matching problem with cost sharing characteristic of self-operated intermodal services among commodities. The multi-commodity multi-service matching problem belongs to a many-to-many matching problem in which a commodity can be matched with multiple services by transferring at terminals, and multiple commodities can be matched with one service by considering cost sharing and capacity limitations. The objective of the matching model is the minimization of generalized cost combining transit cost, transfer cost, inventory cost and carbon tax. Finally, this paper designs a numerical experiment to verify the feasibility of the proposed model. In order to test the influence of the new aspects of the model, four different scenarios are considered. The computational results indicate that the many-to-many matching model is suitable for container transportation systems.