Decision model for the evolution of container liner route mode under the upsizing of ships

In which conditions should a Multiple Port Calling(MPC) mode switch to a Hub & Spoke (H&S) mode has brought about a huge challenge under the larger scale trend of container ships. The mode choice varying with the factors including portof- call frequency, ship size, and variable freight volumes at port. And there are trade-off relationships between the hub location choice and the freight rate of hubs together with the hub numbers. In the condition of remaining the service quality unchanged, considering the co-action complexity and trade-off effects mentioned above, a decision model for the evolution of container liner route mode under the upsizing of ships is proposed. Taking the mode choice, the ship size, and the hub numbers as decision variables, the maximum voyage profit rate as an objective, a three-stage mixed integer programming decision model is constructed. Also a heuristic three-layer cyclic iterative genetic algorithm is designed to solve the model. Finally, take a Far East -North American shipping route as an example, the optimized results and analysis verified the practicability and effectiveness of the model constructed and the algorithm designed in this paper.