Recent Developments and Modeling Efforts in Port Logistics

The port logistics sector is crucial to the world transportation system, as over 80% of worldwide trade in terms of volume is handled by vessels and ports. This conventional industry is experiencing a significant industrial upgrading from labor-intensive to semi-automated and to fully automated due to the demand for improved operational efficiency and the shortage of competent. These challenges have raised the demand for efficient decision-support tools. The port logistics industry has reached a new stage of development. Although the role of ports and terminals in integrated logistics has been well studied, research on the factors that contribute to port logistics competitiveness is still lacking. The purpose of this chapter is to investigate recent developments and the most prominent efforts on modeling port logistics decision problems and based on it to offer insight into how seaports and terminals can improve their competitiveness. The authors investigate the use of Industry 4.0 in port logistics.