Institute of Transportation, MOTC

Hsien-Lun Wong, 2006.07

Department of Transportation Technology and Management
National Chiao Tung University

　　This dissertation designs, develops, and implements two satisfactory models to approach the problems, including the hub location, feeder port allocation, and optimal containership size problems. First, a single assignment nonstrict hub location model (SANHL), with heuristic scheme based on the shortest distance rule, is formulated to solve the former two problems. An experimental case based on the Trans-Pacific Routes is presented to illustrate the SANHL model’s formulation and solution methods. The results indicate that the SANHL model is a concave function, exploiting the economies of scale for total profit with respect to the number of hubs. The spoke allocation may change an optimal choice of hub locations. Second, a nonlinear optimal ship size and speed model (NOS) seeking maximal profit is used to solve the containership size problem. An example of the Trans-Pacific Routes is employed to test the NOS model formulation and sensitivity analysis. The results indicate that the NOS model exploits the diseconomies of scale for total profit to the ship speed. This would provide shipowners with a beneficial reference for planning the size and the speed of their containerships. This dissertation contributes to an optimal marine network planning, hub choice behavior, feeder transshipment structure, and economic containership speed. Moreover, it provides new tools for decision makers, port operators and shipowners concerned with hub-and-spoke routing patterns and containership size development.