Containers Management Simulation in Short Sea Shipping

The increase of maritime traffic and competition in freight transport requires to organize effectively the goods movement within a maritime terminal. In this framework special attention should be paid to the containerized transport, that represents a high percentage of freight traffic. The standardization of freight transport by container allows the identification of functional phases related to loading and unloading operations of the ship and related to container storage management, particularly for short sea shipping traffic fed by and feeding transcontinental traffic. These functional phases can be differently developed based on different equipment. The object of this paper is to describe the development of a discrete event model for the simulation of actions required for unloading of containers from the ship and their storage in assigned stocks. Main aim of this model is to identify possible criticalities in the operational phases and their resolution through targeted measures. Calibration and validation of the model was carried out through its application to the case study represented by the Italian Terminal of Civitavecchia.