Cooperative Relations Among Intermodal Hubs and Transport Providers at Freight Networks Using an MPC Approach

Freight networks are more exposed to unforeseen events leading to delays compromising the delivery of cargo on time. Cooperation among different parties present at freight networks are required to accommodate the occurrence of delays. Cargo assignment to the available transport capacity at the terminal is addressed using a Model Predictive Control approach in this paper, taking into consideration the final destination and the remaining time until due time of cargo. A cooperative framework for transport providers and intermodal hubs is proposed in this paper. The cooperation is based on information exchange regarding the amount of cargo at risk of not reaching the destination on time. The terminal searches for a faster connection at the terminal to allocate the cargo at risk such that the final destination is reached on time. The proposed heuristic is a step towards sustainable and synchromodal transportation networks. Simulation experiments illustrate the validity of these statements.