1,721,061 research outputs found
Motorways of the Sea as an alternative to all-road transport: An application to an Italian case study [Le autostrade del mare come alternativa al "tutto strada": Una applicazione ad un caso Italiano]
No full textIn this paper, a quantitative study is performed on the competitiveness of MoS against road transport, in the modal split between Italian mainland and Sicily. The alternatives considered are: the “nearly all-road” transport, where the only maritime part is the crossing of the strait of Messina; and the intermodal transport: road + MoS, accompained and unaccompained. The results of the analysis point out that the intermodal unaccompanied transport is almost always the most convenient mode if generalized costs are considered. Moreover, the results of the analysis clearly show that the chosen paths (of minimum cost), in the case of intermodal transport, are highly influenced by the availability of MoS services. The results of this work could help decision makers and maritime operators, to better invest on MoS routes in order to improve the competitiveness of intermodal transport against all road transport
The motorways of the sea: a study on the development of the ro-ro network to/from Italian ports in the years 2008-2012
Full text linkIn this paper, the development of the ro-ro Short Sea Shipping (SSS) services offered at Italian ports in the last five years is analyzed. In particular, a detailed research on all the ro-ro SSS routes departing from and arriving to Italian ports, in the years 2008, 2010 and 2012, is performed. All routes regarding these three years are extensively reported. The study highlights two main aspects. The first aspect is that domestic ro-ro routes cannot constitute, by now, an alternative to domestic road freight transport: as no routes connect together two ports in the mainland, but they only connect the Italian mainland with the Italian islands. The second aspect is a general modification of the routes in recent years, particularly between 2010 and 2012: they tend to increase in number, decrease their frequency but increase their length, in particular with reference to the number of ports involved. This fact is a result of the economic crisis: on one hand the transport demand is decreased, and therefore the routes’ frequencies; on the other hand, the shipping companies look for new markets in order to face the reduction in traffic
Simulation and optimization of a capillar third generation car sharing system
No full textThe paper concerns a capillar third generation car sharing system for urban pedestrian environments. The following specific services are provided: instant access, open ended reservation and one way trips; vehicles can be accessed not only at stations, but also along the roads. All these features provide users with high flexibility, but create a problem of uneven distribution of vehicles. Therefore, relocations of vehicles must be performed. Different relocation procedures exist in literature. In this paper, a management scheme is proposed where vehicles automatically relocate and reach the users positions, thanks to their degree of automation. In order to provide transport managers with a useful tool to test the proposed system in different realities, an object-oriented simulator has been developed. An optimization algorithm has also been developed for assessing the fleet dimension and the transport system parameters. The proposed car sharing system has been simulated for Genoa historical city centre, Italy. © 2014 DIME Universita Di Genova
An optimization methodology for the consolidation of urban freight boxes
No full textThe paper refers to an innovative urban freight
distribution scheme. Packages are firstly delivered to
urban distribution centers (UDCs) on the border of
urban areas. Packages should therefore be delivered
from the UDC to receivers within the urban area. Each
package is characterized by an address and dimensions.
FURBOT boxes are consolidated in the UDC with these
packages. Each box is addressed to a temporary
unloading bay and it is delivered there by a FURBOT
vehicle. A virtual key and the actual address of the box
will be communicated to all the receivers, allowing
them to collect their packages from the box in a given
time window. The paper concerns a methodology for
the box consolidation which minimizes the overall
distance travelled by receivers, taking into account the
box capacity and the maximum walking distance the
receivers accept to collect their packages. A fuzzy kmeans
clustering algorithm has been adopted
The routing problem of an innovative urban freight distribution scheme
No full textThe paper refers to an innovative urban freight distribution scheme, aimed at reducing the externalities
connected with the freight delivery process. Both packages destined to commercial activities and to private
consumers (e-commerce) are taken into account. Packages are firstly delivered to urban distribution centers
(UDCs) on the border of urban areas; each package is characterized by an address and dimensions. FURBOT
boxes are consolidated in the UDC with these packages. Each box is addressed to a temporary unloading bay and
it is delivered there by a FURBOT vehicle. The FURBOT vehicle has a capacity of 2 boxes. The paper focuses
on the problem of choosing the couple of boxes to be loaded on each vehicle and on the related choice of the
route to be assigned to each vehicle: from the UDC to the first stop where the first box should be unloaded, to the
second stop where the second box should be unloaded, and then back to the UDC. A methodology for the
specific routing problem is proposed and its application to the case study of Genoa city centre is presented
A new urban freight distribution scheme and an optimization methodology for reducing its overall cost
Full text linkPurpose: The paper refers to an innovative urban freight distribution scheme, aimed at reducing the externalities connected with the freight delivery process. Both packages destined to commercial activities and to end consumers (e-commerce) are taken into account. Each package is characterized by an address and dimensions. In the proposed transport system, freight is firstly delivered to the UDC on the border of urban areas through trucks or trains which perform the long distance transport. After, freight is reorganized and consolidated into load units, i.e. the FURBOT boxes, according to packages dimensions and to the addresses of receivers. Each box is addressed to a temporary unloading bay and it is delivered there by a FURBOT vehicle. The receivers are in charge of collecting their packages in the related unloading bays where they have been delivered.
Methods and results: The paper concerns a methodology for optimizing this freight transport system’s performances. The overall methodology receives in input the actual freight demand and the road network, and finds the transport system parameters (number of required FURBOT boxes, their temporary unloading bay, the FURBOT fleet dimension and the FURBOT vehicle routing) that minimize the system overall cost. The overall cost is a sum of the users’ cost, which depends on the distance they have to walk for collecting their packages in the FURBOT box, and of the operator’s cost, which depends on the number of required boxes, the total distance travelled by the FURBOT vehicles and the required number of FURBOT vehicles.
Application: The overall procedure has been applied to the case study of Barreiro old town, a suburb of Lisbon, Portugal. © 2015, The Author(s)
The container deep sea and transhipment services in Italian ports: an overview
No full textABSTRACT - In this paper, after a brief comparison about the amount and the typology of maritime trade in Italian ports during the recent years, deep sea container services departing from the two main Italian gateway regions, i.e. North Adriatic region and North Tyrrhenian region, and from the Italian hub port system are analyzed. In particular the deep sea container lines, directed to the different area of the world (classified according to “L’avvisatore Marittimo”) calling at Italians ports, in a month, have been reported. The Italian ports considered in the studio have been: the Italian hub ports of Gioia Tauro, Cagliari and Taranto; the ports forming the North Tyrrhenian gateway cluster, i.e. Genoa, La Spezia, Savona and Livorno; and the ports forming the North Adriatic gateway cluster, i.e. Ancona, Ravenna, Venezia and Trieste. Afterwards, short sea shipping container routes linking all Italian ports have been studied for pointing out the feeder connections from Italian gateway ports and Italian hub ports in order to highlight the transshipment phenomenon in the overall Italian maritime scenario. Finally synthetic results, on short sea shipping and deep sea shipping, for the Italian ports considered in the studio have been provided. The analysis shows the high relevance of the North Tyrrhenian gateway ports, both regarding deep sea shipping connections and short sea shipping connections. In particular: more than 60 of all container ships departing, by month, from the Italian ports considered in the survey calls at the Tyrrhenian gateway ports, while 42 calls at the Italian hub ports and 20 calls at the Adriatic gateway ports. As far as the deep sea shipping container traffic is concerned the data are even more favorable to North Tyrrhenian ports: 80 of all container ships departing, by month, from the Italian ports considered in the survey calls at the Tyrrhenian gateway ports, 40 calls at the Italian hub ports and 6 calls at the Adriatic gateway ports. The main international routes connect Italian ports to Red Sea and Far East and to US ports. Minor international routes connect them to South America, Africa and Oceania. North Tyrrhenian gateway ports and Italian hub ports have several deep-sea departures, while Adriatic ports play a minor role. Transshipment in Italy regards mainly Adriatic ports, which are connected, through short sea shipping container routes, to the hub ports, where deep sea services stop
The competitiveness of Motorways of the Sea: a case study in Italy
No full textThis chapter firstly discusses the main characteristics of Motorways of the Sea (MoS) in Italy, especially in relation to their competitiveness against all-road transport. The evolution of MoS routes from 2008 to 2019, with a focus on routes supplied in 2015, is shown. Existing ro-ro and ro-pax routes calling at Italian ports are analysed, and they are compared to each other regarding: speed, frequency and reliability. As for the quantitative analysis of the competitiveness of intermodal transport, based on MoS, against all-road transport, two cases of study are presented. The first one concerns connections between the Italian mainland and Sicily. This research has involved: a detailed intermodal network model which compares monetary costs and travel times from all relevant origins in the mainland to all relevant destinations in Sicily; a survey carried out at some representative trucking firms operating to/from Sicily. The results of the analysis show the main elements affecting the modal choice. The second case study concerns the competitiveness of the intermodal alternative, based on MoS, in the Ligurian Sea coastal area. The existing motorway in this region is very congested and presents poor technical characteristics, but the low distances among cities of the Ligurian coast is not in favour of intermodal transport. The results of the research show that the current intermodal alternative is not competitive, but Three other scenarios have been studied: fare integration, route integration, completely new MoS routes. The third scenario resulted to be the best in terms of costs and travel times, but it requires high investment costs
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