Collaborative logistics: optimizing fixed-scheduled container trains

We propose a new logistics concept for rail-based container transportation where, instead of booking individual slots on specific trains (which is the current state of the art), customers only specify from where to where they want their containers to be delivered, as well as appropriate time windows for pickup and delivery. A containers actual transportation route is then chosen by a freight forwarder based on the availability and compatibility of freight trains. We provide an optimization algorithm based on an integer linear programming formulation that can be used to find globally optimal transportation schedules for a given set of containers. Our computational experiments show that this new paradigm can significantly reduce the number of trains required for serving a given container transportation demand, improving the logistic systems’ overall environmental and economic efficiency.