Routing containers in a dry port transport system

In this paper, we discuss, model and heuristically solve a particular container transport problem, related to the inland transport between a sea port and an inland terminal directly connected to it, called dry port. The transport is undertaken by a heterogeneous fleet. Similarly to the classical vehicle routing problem with pickup and delivery (VRPPD), vehicles can deliver containers to the different quays of the sea port and pick up others to bring to the dry port. The highly clustered setting, the strong heterogeneity of the fleet and time constraints add further features to the classical problem. After a detailed description of the setting, we develop the mathematical model and propose a heuristic approach.