Evaluation of Truck Traffic at a Container Terminal Using Simulation

This paper presents a simulation model to determine the impact of increased truck traffic entering and exiting the container terminal at the Alabama State Docks in Mobile, AL. Of special interest was the number of truck locations required to process the truck traffic and the possible use of trains to reduce the truck traffic entering and exiting the container terminal. Truck locations are used in the ProcessModel to control the maximum number of trucks in the container terminal. As a result, the number of truck locations is an important measure of the amount of space needed within the terminal. The Baseline Run1 had fifty trucks, or resources. Runs2-6 continually reduced the number of truck locations available. It appears that with the existing entity arrival rates only ten truck locations are necessary. The results with ten truck locations were identical to the results with fifty truck locations. The number of locations will probably have to increase if there is an increase in container traffic. The simulation results indicated that the container terminal would have a significant impact of truck traffic in and out of Mobile. A ship arriving every four days (or about seven ships a month) with an average of 450 containers for import and 350 containers for export will require about 350 trucks to bring in containers for export and another 450 trucks to move the incoming containers inland. This traffic volume will occur every four days, which is the time between arrivals of ships. Run3 estimated 4,400 trucks a month (or 220 per day) will be added to the interstate traffic in Mobile with the arrival of a container ship every four days. The addition of train service to the container terminal will reduce the truck traffic servicing the terminal. The simulation results for Run7 indicated at 18% reduction in truck traffic with a train arriving every five days. The arrival of a train every three days in Run8 had a 31% reduction in truck traffic. For every container that arrives on a train a truck is removed from delivering a container to the terminal. Also for every container that arrives on a ship and leaves the terminal on train a truck is removed from the Mobile road network. Included in this paper are a description of the simulation model, the experiment and an analysis of the simulation results.