Container terminals are living ecosystems deployed over complex and large infrastructures with a rich number of stakeholders interacting in a coordinated way to offer logistic services under a strict operational planning and tight control of costs.
Due to the strong competitiveness, challenging requirements and demanding needs of the port and shipping industry, cargo operations must be carried out in a very accurate manner to achieve high operational efficiency, while ensuring that the Container Handling Equipment (CHE) are used effectively in order to maximize productivity rates (i.e., increase movements per hour) and minimize both idle times of the equipment and demurrages during the whole supply chain in a port call process.
CHEs are the heavy machinery (i.e., Ship to Shore, Rubber-Tired Gantry, Reach Stacker, Straddle Carrier, Terminal Tractor, etc.) available in the facilities of the infrastructure which are at the disposal of the terminal operators and the stevedores for the handling, storage, loading and unloading of cargo from one mode of transport to another (i.e., vessel, yard, rail, truck, etc.) during the non-stop working shifts of the staff.
