Fleet co-deployment for liner shipping alliance: Vessel pool operation with uncertain demand

The rational distribution of fleet resources is an important way to improve the productivity of maritime transport industry. With container vessels becoming increasingly large and the industrial competition becoming more intense in maritime transportation industry, shipping alliances have become the most common ways of cooperation for liner enterprises. Studying how to co-deploy the alliance fleets is of great significance for increasing the overall profits and competitiveness of an alliance. This paper mainly studies the co-deployment of liner alliance fleets under the vessel pool operation with uncertain demand. First, the definition and operation mode of a vessel pool is explained. Then, the factors influencing the co-deployment of alliance fleets are analysed. Based on this and the uncertain demand of container transport in practice, a robust-optimization-based co-deployment model for the fleets of the container shipping alliance is established, and a case analysis of the six routes of the three liner companies under the alliance is performed. The model makes the optimal decision for the plan on codeployment of alliance fleets, and the result achieved can give full play to the resource advantages of alliance members, and allow the alliance to get maximum profits, which proves the effectiveness and practicability of the model.