Optimization Of Slot Allocation And Dynamic Pricing For Container Sea-Rail Intermodal Transportation Based On Revenue Management

As China speeds up the integration into the economic globalization, industrial upgrading and readjustment of economic structure, foreign trade of China has grown rapidly, so that port’s container throughput has increased year after year, and range of port’s economic hinterland has further penetrated into the central and western regions of China. The container sea-rail intermodal transport is characterized by all-weather, large capacity, long haul distance, safety, environmental friendly, energy saving and so on, and has become an important way for port’s collecting and distributing system. In recent years, a series of policies and measures to promote the development of sea-rail intermodal transport have been issued in China, so that the macro development environment and technical conditions will be improved gradually, and the sea-rail intermodal transport market is becoming mature. Therefore, under the new situation, in-depth research on the transport capacity allocation of container sea-rail intermodal transport should be conducted from the micro operation technology level of multimodal transportation operator (MTO), which has become a new task needs to be solved for the current container sea-rail intermodal transport system.Through taking the container sea-rail intermodal transport system as the research object, this paper analyzes its ideal operation mechanism. Based on this, as well as the theory and method of revenue management, this paper focuses on the study of slot allocation and dynamic pricing for container sea-rail intermodal transport from the perspective of MTO.First of all, the ideal operation mechanism of container sea-rail intermodal transport from the perspectives of operation main body, organization mode and formation mechanism of freight rates is analyzed, which constitutes the essential prerequisite for revenue management application and optimization model research. Then, according to the basic theory of revenue management, feasibility and particularity for implementation of revenue management in container sea-rail intermodal transport industry is analyzed combining with the application background of container sea-rail intermodal transport. Furthermore, the concept model and core content of revenue management for container sea-rail intermodal transport is put forward. Next, optimization model of two core decision-makings in the concept model is studied, which are slot allocation and dynamic pricing.In the study of optimization model with slot allocation as the decision-making, the network capacity control technology in revenue management is adopted. Based on the multi OD market formed by multi-node container sea-rail intermodal transport, giving full consideration to the market segmentation of contract customers, ordinary customers and urgent customers, optimization models of slot allocation to various customer types on various OD markets are established under the determined price conditions. The methods of solving the models with stochastic demand are explored. Furthermore, feasibility and availability of the model and solving methods is verified through an example, as well as the effectiveness of slot allocation strategy based on customer segmentation.In the study of optimization model with dynamic pricing as the decision-making, the technology of dynamic pricing in revenue management is adopted. The slot allocation for contract customers and dynamic pricing for scattered customers in different periods of booking time are the decision-makings, and the optimization models of joint dynamic pricing and slot allocation under uncertainty demand are established. In the form of sea-rail intermodal transport line, first of all, basic model is established for simple single OD lines, and the demand uncertainties are considered to discuss the robust optimization methods to solve the model. Then, extend the single OD model to multi-node lines. In the case of model building, increase the joint capacity control of demand in multiple OD markets, and solve the empty container allocation caused by imbalance of goods flow. In the case of model solving, conduct further discussion for the robust optimization methods to solve the model under the expression of two different kinds of uncertainty demand functions. Finally, feasibility of various models and solving methods as well as effectiveness of two-stage slot allocation and dynamic pricing strategy are verified through examples.The study result is of great theoretical significance for the promotion of in-depth development of sea-rail intermodal transport system theory and the expansion of application of revenue management theory and methods. It provides a new perspective of management and scientific technical support to improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of sea-rail intermodal transport system. In addition, it has important practical guiding significance for the decision-making in transport capacity allocation of MTO with revenue maximization as the target.