Abstract Tank terminals play a significant role in the storage and international transportation of goods such as liquids and gases. This paper focuses on a real-world problem where trucks must be assigned to loading stations which connect to tanks containing the product to (un)load. The typically limited operational space results in a specific type of blocking where trucks may be blocked not only at their assigned loading station, but also on their way towards it. The difficulty of fully understanding the repercussions of scheduling trucks to certain loading positions makes it extremely challenging for human operators to schedule trucks efficiently. The problem is contrasted against a range of active problems from the scheduling literature in order to establish its unique scientific merit. We provide a mixed integer programming formulation for this problem and a heuristic approach. The heuristic outperforms an estimation of the dispatching rules currently enforced by terminals, thereby providing such terminals with a practical tool for optimizing their operations. Moreover, in order to stimulate further research, a set of instances derived from real-world data has been made publicly available.

中文翻译：

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油罐码头的卡车调度

摘要油罐码头在液体和气体等货物的存储和国际运输中起着重要作用。本文关注的是一个现实问题，在该问题中必须将卡车分配到装载站，这些装载站连接到要装载（卸载）产品的储罐。通常有限的操作空间会导致特定类型的阻塞，其中卡车可能不仅在分配的装载站而且在通往装载站的途中被阻塞。难以完全理解将卡车调度到某些装载位置的影响，这对于人类操作员有效地调度卡车是极具挑战性的。为了确定其独特的科学价值，将该问题与调度文献中的一系列活跃问题进行了对比。我们提供了针对此问题的混合整数编程公式以及一种启发式方法。启发式算法胜过对当前由终端执行的调度规则的估计，从而为此类终端提供了用于优化其操作的实用工具。此外，为了刺激进一步的研究，已公开提供了一组来自现实世界数据的实例。