Previous studies on liner container shipping operations usually assume identical container ships deployed in the same shipping route. However, in real operations, this assumption does not always hold considering the distinct capacities, ages, fuel efficiencies, cost structures, etc. of these ships. These distinctions significantly influence the number of containers transported, the bunker fuel consumption, and the operating cost of a shipping route. In this regard, this paper considers the joint ship deployment, sequencing, and scheduling problem for a fleet of heterogeneous vessels in a shipping route. A mixed integer programming model is developed to select the optimal ships from a set of candidate ships together with their sequences, schedules, and sailing speeds in the shipping route to minimize the total cost. A tailored solution algorithm is subsequently developed to calculate the global optimal solution. Numerical experiments demonstrate that this algorithm significantly outperforms the classical branch-and-cut algorithm in solving the model. In addition, by applying our model in a real-case shipping route, we find that the model is able to reduce the total cost by 5% compared with that considering homogeneous vessels. Finally, several managerial insights are obtained to guide the operations of a liner shipping route.

以前对班轮集装箱运输业务的研究通常假设部署在同一条航线上的相同集装箱船。然而，在实际操作中，考虑到这些船舶的不同容量、船龄、燃料效率、成本结构等，这种假设并不总是成立。这些区别会显着影响运输的集装箱数量、燃油消耗和航线的运营成本。在这方面，本文考虑了在一条航线上的异构船舶船队的联合船舶部署、排序和调度问题。开发了混合整数规划模型，以从一组候选船舶中选择最佳船舶及其在航线中的顺序、时间表和航行速度，以最小化总成本。随后开发了定制的解决方案算法来计算全局最优解决方案。数值实验表明，该算法在求解模型方面明显优于经典的分支切割算法。此外，通过将我们的模型应用于实际航线，我们发现该模型与考虑同质船舶的模型相比，能够将总成本降低 5%。最后，获得了一些管理见解来指导班轮航线的运营。我们发现与考虑同质容器的模型相比，该模型能够将总成本降低 5%。最后，获得了一些管理见解来指导班轮航线的运营。我们发现与考虑同质容器的模型相比，该模型能够将总成本降低 5%。最后，获得了一些管理见解来指导班轮航线的运营。