This study aims to apply and examine the stochastic approach for empty container repositioning and leasing problem. For this a case study has been carried out on actual data such as various cost components and traffic flow. The results reveal that the proposed methodology produces more realistic results than the conventional deterministic approaches. It is also found that the results are significantly affected by the accuracy of demand and supply forecast.

This paper is concerned with the development of a tractable model to assist liner shipping companies in the decision-making of empty container repositioning and leasing. A hybrid methodology is presented which properly accounts for the specific characteristics of empty container management. For this mathematical models are developed based on dynamic network models, covering both land and marine segment. Then a stochastic method is presented to deal with the uncertainty of the future demand and supply. Especially, the concept of opportunity cost has been introduced in order to explain interactions between the variation of the future demand and supply and the stock level at each depot.

The management of liner shipping company is an extremely complex activities, especially if a company aims to simultaneously optimize the cost and service of the company's operations in a competitive environment. This paper investigates the control process of containers in a typical container liner shipping and proposes day by day operational model for empty container control in the maritime container transportation system. We proposed a linear programming model for empty container control in container liner shipping and the computational results show utilities of the model.