JOURNAL OF THE FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE OF GAZI UNIVERSITY, vol.31, no.2, pp.383-394, 2016 (SCI-Expanded)
Recently, there has been a growing attention to load planning problems in intermodal logistics networks by global logistics sector. However, most of the studies in the literature were concentrated on single mode problems from the perspectives of logistics companies/production firms. Since increasing importance of intermodal transportation, the problem need to be solved by handling various complex decisions simultaneously (i.e., transportation mode selection, load allocation, outsourcing and sizing of maritime and railway cruises), which makes the problem much more complex. In this study, a mixed-integer programming model is developed for a multi-objective, multi-mode and multi-period load planning problem from the perspective of freight forwarders. In the proposed model, both import/export transport demands of the customers are considered. In addition to minimize overall transport costs, it is also aimed to minimize total transit time and environmental impact resulted from CO2 emissions. In order to handle these conflicting objectives and to provide compromise solutions under uncertainty, a fuzzy goal programming approach is used. According to the computational results, effective/efficient load plans can be generated in terms of economic and environmental issues.