Increasing capacity at ports and goods movement in the supply chain in general, while also satisfying environmental, economic, political, labor union, and other constraints is, arguably, the greatest challenge of modern transportation. With space at a premium and costs through the roof, it is increasingly obvious that the traditional solutions are not feasible in the short- or even medium-term. However, advances in information technology, telecommunications, data management, and computation tools, coupled with recent research in systems optimization and control, may provide promising new approaches.

With contributions from experts, this book presents techniques and technologies to boost capacity, reduce cost, and improve efficiency transportation systems. It discusses ports and container terminals, how they interact with surface transportation, and related security issues. It covers fully automated containers, explains cost and performance analysis, and examines new strategies for empty container reuse, truck routing, and dispatching to meet time constraints for service. Additional topics include container terminals of the future, advanced processing technologies, and the gate appointment system. It examines labor union issues and environment issues associated with ports, ships, and the logistics chain.