Container liner shipping schedule optimization with shipper selection behavior considered

The liner shipping schedules determine the container transportation time and the arrival time of ships, which has a significant influence on the shipper selection behavior and the transportation demand. This paper addresses the container liner shipping schedule optimization with shipper selection behavior considered. Our problem is formulated as a mixed-integer nonlinear programming model, where the shipper selection behavior is evaluated by a nested logit model. A particle swarm optimization (PSO) framework embedded with CPLEX solver is designed, by combining the constraint relaxations and the linearization techniques with the heuristic rules. The numerical experiments are conducted based on the Persian Gulf route of COSCO SHIPPING LINES. The results show that: the total freight demand is increased by 23% and the weekly operation revenue is increased by 31% after considering shipper selection. Besides, we find that the planned ship speed should be increased for time-preference shippers with electronic or refrigerated products, while it should be decreased for price-preference shippers with general or bulk cargoes. These conclusions can provide decision support for the operation practice of liner shipping schedule design.