Dynamic Cost Model to Evaluate the Impact of Increasing Automation in Container Terminals on Transport Chain Cost

Nowadays many intermodal terminals are moving towards more automated solutions in order to improve the efficiency of freight transport chain. These automation solutions concern: yard management, quay scheduling, land-side loading/unloading, stowage planning and sequencing, automated recognition systems, etc.. Hence, the automation of intermodal terminals has effects/impacts on the inland transportation costs. Usually, the models developed in freight transport cost research are static (Feo-Valero et al. (2011), Liu et al. (2009), Liu et al. (2012)) and not consider the variation of costs over time. In this regard, Ferrari (2014) has made an important contribution. He introduced a dynamic model based on a dynamic cost function. This function considers the variation over time of costs due to technological and organizational changes in transport modes. Nevertheless, the models identified in literature review analyze transport cost on a particular inland corridor, whereas the variation of transport costs at a port hinterland network level seems to be neglected. Conca et al. (2016) introduces a dynamic model to evaluate the modal shift (road/rail) in a port hinterland network considering the level of automation of intermodal nodes. Therefore, starting from the assumptions of Conca et al. (2016), this paper has the objective to define a dynamic transport cost model for road and rail that considers the role of automation developments at a port hinterland network level.