Intermodal freight transportation.The problem of empty containers in transportation service production

Abstract

This paper aims to describe an issue of great concern to transportation firms in dealing with the distribution of goods: the management of empty containers. Indeed, freight carriers must timely dispatch empty containers of various types in anticipation of forecasted customer demands and reposition other containers in order to face unbalanced cargo volumes between the different regions they served. Terminal operators and leasing companies are also involved in this problem. Understanding empty flows generation is quite important because this phenomenon will never be eliminated completely, but only mitigated with efficient tools such as the optimisation methods of Operation Research. Interesting research trends are also mentioned in order to improve the state-of-the-art in this issue.