Stable Container-Route Matching Based on the New Western Land-Sea Corridor

Centered around Chengdu and Chongqing, the New Western Land-Sea Corridor establishes multiple rail-sea intermodal transport links and international road connections. This research addresses the container-to-route matching problem in the context of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor. By applying stable matching theory, containers are allocated based on the mutual preferences of shippers for routes and operators for shipment combinations. To incorporate bilateral preferences, the study develops a many-to-one stable matching framework and introduces a local search algorithm to handle the resulting assignment task. Computational results reveal that, when generalized transport costs are considered, the Yangtze River Economic Belt remains the most favorable option for container transport, with the New Western Land-Sea Corridor ranking second. When the cargo time value is considered, medium-value and high-value shipments shift from the Yangtze River routes and cross-border roads to the New Western Land-Sea Corridor. Under the stable matching framework, subsidies can be reduced by up to 40% without significantly impacting the matching rate.