Container routing in multimodal and time – dependent network using genetic algorithms

Abstract

This article deals with the intermodal transportation problem for the commodities delivery between different locations. The time – dependent shortest path planning, in which the travel time along each arc is a known function of the departure time along the arc, is a very important problem and arises in many practical application such as a routing system of a container used in the time – dependent intermodal transportation. Given a fixed timetable of the bi – intermodal transportation network (using trucks and trains ), this article proposes a genetic algorithm – based method to route a container from a source to destination such that the total transportation time between these nodes to be minimum.

Keywords

• time – dependent network
• intermodal transport
• genetic algorithm
• container routing
• time – dependent shortest path problem