Development of mathematical models for the container road transportation in Korean trucking industries Ki Ho Chung a, * , Chang Seong Ko b , Jae Young Shin c , Hark Hwang d , Kap Hwan Kim e a Department of Digital Business, Kyungsung University, 110-1, Daeyeon-Dong, Nam-Gu, Busan 608-736, Republic of Korea b Department of Industrial Engineering, Kyungsung University, Busan, Republic of Korea c Department of Logistics Engineering, Korea Maritime University, Busan, Republic of Korea d Department of Industrial Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Taejon, Republic of Korea e Department of Industrial Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea Available online 15 June 2007 Abstract This study deals with some practical problems of the container road transportation in Korean trucking industries. We examine the workflow in container transportation and then develop mathematical models integrating the various operating and design characteristics of the containers. Several types of formulations are developed utilizing the standard formula- tions of well known TSP (Traveling Salesman Problem) and VRP (Vehicle Routing Problem). Heuristic algorithms are also presented to solve the models. An example problem is illustrated to explain how to apply the models to the real world through the data set collected from a container trucking company in Korea. Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Container transportation; Mathematical model; TSP; VRP; Heuristic algorithm 1. Introduction At the present time, container transportation plays a key role in the international logistics. The efforts to increase the productivity of container logistics become essential for Korean trucking companies to survive in the domestic as well as global competition. The operation and design problems related to container transportation are very complicated by the ele- ments such as the coverage areas, sizes of the containers, material types in the container, transportation modes, etc. According to Bodin, Golden, Assad, and Ball (1983) and Savelsbergh and Sol (1995), container transportation problems belong to Pick-up-and-Delivery problems. Cullen, Jarvis, and Ratliff (1981) per- formed representative research on the problems. Dumas, Desrosiers, and Soumis (1991) added the time 0360-8352/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.cie.2007.06.017 * Corresponding author. Fax: +82 51 627 6830. E-mail address: khchung@ksu.ac.kr (K.H. Chung). Computers & Industrial Engineering 53 (2007) 252–262 www.elsevier.com/locate/dsw