Simulation-Based Cost Modeling to Measure the Effect of Automated Trucks in Inter-Terminal Container Transportation

Container transports within ports are characterized by mostly manual trucks and many handling operations in relatively small areas. Accordingly, they incur a disproportionately large cost in maritime transport chains. One way to reduce these costs is to use automated trucks in a port-internal transport system. Such systems have only been used on terminals, but not within whole ports. Thus, it is important to determine the design parameters of such transport systems. discrete event simulation is particularly suitable for investigating planned systems and controls in logistics. However, the costs of such systems are usually neglected. Therefore, a simulation-based cost model is used in this study to determine the cost-effectiveness of automated trucking systems. It is shown which factors possess the greatest influence on the cost-effectiveness of port-internal container transports. Furthermore, it can be estimated for the first time which cost savings can be achieved by using automated trucks for port-internal container transports.