UNCORRECTED PROOF 2 Port dynamic empty container reuse 3 Hossein Jula a, * , Anastasios Chassiakos b , Petros Ioannou c 4 a School of Science, Engineering and Technology, Pennsylvania State University-Harrisburg, 5 Middletown, PA 17057, United States 6 b Electrical Engineering Department, California State University, Long Beach, CA 90840, United States 7 c Electrical Engineering Department, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-2562, United States Received 20 February 2004; received in revised form 10 August 2004; accepted 14 August 2004 10 Abstract 11 In this paper, empty container movements in the Los Angeles and Long Beach (LA/LB) port area are 12 studied in an effort to reduce congestion by optimizing the empty container reuse. The dynamic empty con- 13 tainer reuse is modeled analytically, and techniques are developed to optimize empty container operations. 14 Several case studies based on current and projected demand in the LA/LB port area are used to evaluate the 15 proposed techniques. Simulation results demonstrate that significant cost and congestion reductions can be 16 achieved in the area, through reuse of empty containers. 17 Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 18 Keywords: Dynamic optimization; Empty container reuse; Los Angeles and Long Beach port area 19 20 1. Introduction 21 The Los Angeles and Long Beach (LA/LB) port complex, located in San Pedro Bay, is the larg- 22 est US ocean freight hub and its busiest container port complex. It consists of fourteen individ- 23 ually gated terminals, and serves as a crucial node in the regional supply chain (Mallon and 1366-5545/$ - see front matter Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tre.2004.08.007 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 717 948 6382. E-mail address: hjula@psu.edu (H. Jula). www.elsevier.com/locate/tre Transportation Research Part E xxx (2004) xxx–xxx TRE 238 No. of Pages 18, DTD = 5.0.1 10 December 2004 Disk Used ARTICLE IN PRESS