Routing of straddle carriers at a container terminal with the special aspect of internal moves

Besides loading and discharging of ships, trucks and railway internal transportations are performed as a container terminal. Those transports amount to about 100000km a year at the Container Terminal of the Hamburger Hafen- und Lagerhaus AG. Different methods for the routing of the vehicles (Straddle Carriers) were tested to minimize no-load ways. Heuristics solving the Multiple Travelling Salesman Problem were applied to the routing problem as well as a method for sequencing insertions in printed circuit board assemblies and rules for machine scheduling. Simulation with real data indicated a total saving of 20-35% in no-load distances which correspond to about 20000km a year. The routing solution was implemented into a radio data transmission system.