Maritime Transport of Bulk Materials: An Operations Research Perspective

Abstract

Vehicle routing and scheduling has been studied extensively in the context of truck transport and, to a lesser extent, in the context of rail transport. However, relatively little work has been done on ship routing and scheduling even though approximately 90% of the volume and 70% of the value of all goods transported worldwide is carried by sea. In this paper, we survey the literature on maritime transport of bulk products with an eye on challenges that lend themselves to solution by operations research methodology. The survey is by no means exhaustive and is intended as an introduction to the subject for researchers new to the field. Only brief synopses of the articles are used to capture the flavor of the type of problems that arise and the models and solution strategies that have been proposed to deal with them. While the paper focuses on routing and scheduling problems, other important problems are also identified.