When Terminals Collaborate: Joint Optimization of Vessel Rerouting, Berth Allocation, and Container Waterway Transfers

This paper investigates a multi-terminal collaboration problem, where sea-going vessels facing long waits at contracted terminals can be rerouted to neighboring collaborative terminals for earlier berthing. Beyond vessel rerouting and berth allocation, this study addresses container management, as rerouting inevitably disrupts container flows, leading to missed export containers, misplaced import containers, disconnected transshipments, and ultimately affecting the core transport function of ports and vessels. To mitigate these effects, container transfers between terminals are incorporated, focusing on the sustainable waterway mode using shuttle vessels.Each shuttle requires two berthing operations, at the transfer origin and destination terminals, while competing with sea-going vessels for limited quay resources. This not only increases the complexity of berth allocation but also creates additional congestion at terminals, potentially invalidating rerouting decisions. An integer programming model is formulated to integrate vessel rerouting, berth allocation, container transfers, and shuttle deployment. To solve it, a Branch-and-Price algorithm is proposed, which decomposes the problem into three tractable subproblems solved separately and coordinated through a master problem, thereby enhancing computational efficiency. Numerical experiments validate the algorithm, highlight the critical role of integrated container transfers, and show that container waterway transfers can serve as a feasible mode for multi-terminal collaboration, even when they involve additional competition for quay resources. They further demonstrate the benefits of multi-terminal collaboration from both cost and emission perspectives across a large number of instances. Sensitivity analyses yield valuable managerial insights for implementing multi-terminal collaboration operations.