Simulation of truck arrivals at container terminal based on the interactive truck appointment system

Truck appointment system (TAS) is used to regulate the number of trucks that can enter the terminal. However, because of the limited number of quotas, TAS is incompetent to fully meet all requirements of time window for individual truckers. In order to avoid the limitation of TAS, a simulation-based truck appointment mechanism named 'interactive appointment system (IAS) ' was proposed with the purpose of balancing truck arrival peak and reducing truck turnaround time. IAS allows the trucker to get the estimated truck turnaround time over his preferred arrival time interval when making an appointment application. This can assist him to choose a reasonable appointment arrival time. Moreover, a discrete event simulation model was formulated to estimate truck turnaround time, through describing the tri-stage queuing system (gate-parking lot-yard) of terminals, with considering the interference of block occupying brought by ship discharging/loading operations. Results of a series of experiments demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of IAS on alleviating congestion inside/outside terminal and decreasing truck turnaround time. In addition, how the parking quantity of parking lot influences the efficiency of terminal queuing system was also discussed in this study.