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This paper studies the universal point scheme with multiple retailers and a platform that implements the points within a channel. First, we analysed the equilibriums of the channel under the decentralised control and the mode of lateral cost-sharing among retailers. We found that retailers are willing to set the lowest point conversion ratios under the lateral cost-sharing mode compared with the decentralised and centralised control modes. The optimal conversion ratio of a retailer under the decentralised control is greater than the one under the centralised control when the cost spillover and double marginalisation are not significant. Next, we extended the model by considering the participation of new retailer. In this dynamic channel, the impact of the cost spillover phenomenon on the channel members' preferences is discussed. Third, we showed that the wholesale price contract for point management used in the real world has a limitation in terms of profit split. Following this, we proposed a buyback contract and showed the optimal contract parameters under which the channel's profit could be maximised and arbitrarily split. The managerial insights we obtained shed light on how to design a universal point scheme and select channel members to achieve an all-win scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greenhouse gas emissions in the shipping industry have been a major challenge in the sustainability of international transportation. This paper studied shore power management for river shipping, which has become increasingly popular in some international transport networks. We discussed stakeholders' incentives and concerns regarding shore power and found that vessel owners play one of the dominant roles in the wide implementation of shore power. Then, a mathematical model is developed to show the advantages of shore power by combining it with an analysis of the optimal oil inventory plan for vessels. When the plan of the oil inventory on vessels is well designed, using shore power could be more beneficial than oil even if the shore power has a higher price than the latter because using shore power can provide the vessel with more options to improve the oil inventory plan by reducing oil consumption during berthing and the number of refueling. Sensitivity analyses are conducted to obtain a better understanding of the impact of the parameters on the performance of shore power. Our policy suggestions and findings can shed lights on how to make incentive policies for a wider and easier implementation of shore power under international shipping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2013, the concept of the ‘Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road (Belt and Road)’ was initiated by the Chinese government, which involves Asian, European and African continents and their adjacent seas. Logistics plays a core role in such a large framework of economy and trade. In recent years, China, European Union, and Southeast Asia pay much attention to the design and development of the intermodal transportation network towards both economic and environmental efficiency. In this paper, we propose an empty container repositioning model in the intermodal transportation network of Belt and Road (B&R) Initiative by considering both standard and foldable containers. In this model, empty containers are repositioned from the inland of the original area, such as China, to other areas of B&R Initiative related countries and regions, such as European Union and Southeast Asia. We develop a mixed integer linear programming model to determine the optimal repositioning of empty containers via the intermodal transportation network. An Artificial Bee Colony algorithm is developed to solve large size problems in practice and numerical experiments are conducted to show the efficiency of our proposed algorithm. We provide managerial insights regarding the impact on the network performance of foldable containers transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ‘Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road’ (One Belt One Road, OBOR) strategy initiated by the Chinese government has a significant impact on the business and logistics modes which involves Asia, Europe, Africa, and their adjacent seas. Many countries and ports are developing new strategies that are suitable for this economic environment. Compared with many ports in the world, the ports in Zhejiang province of China have a novel property. In addition to Ningbo-Zhoushan port, there are several other sea ports and river ports in that province. In this paper, we propose a concept of port service network that consists of a huge hub and multiple ports. Ports of small and medium sizes can share their capacities of different types of port service with the hub when the service capacities are integrated into the network. We develop a mixed integer nonlinear programming model to determine the optimal decisions in such a network with constraints on the budget to conduct integration. An optimization algorithm incorporated with a genetic algorithm is developed to solve large size problems. We provide managerial insights on the policies of government, including expanding port capacity, reducing fixed integration cost, and providing better financial condition. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The university timetabling problem (UTP) has been studied by numerous research groups for decades. In addition to addressing hard and soft constraints, we extend the UTP by considering consecutiveness and periodicity constraints of multi-session lectures, which are common in many eastern Asian universities. Because schedulers can decide the consecutiveness and periodicity constraints for the multi-session lectures within a limited ratio, we consider these novel decision variables in our model. We develop a mixed integer linear program for the UTP. For the analysis, we convert the UTP into the three-dimensional container packing problem (3DCPP) and create a hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA), which has been shown to be efficient in solving the 3DCPP. We also develop a tabu search algorithm based on the existing UTP literature and compare the findings with that of our HGA. The results show that our HGA obtains a better solution than the tabu search algorithm in a reasonable amount of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]