Abstract

Container leasing is a flourishing industry characterised by multiple-unit demand, monopolistic supply, and long-standing customer relationships. The constraints imposed by a finite capacity and dynamic customer arrivals mean that leasing companies must address allocation and pricing issues. In this study, we investigate the dynamic rationing and nonlinear pricing problem for a leasing company with high-type and low-type customers (differentiated by per-time valuation for the leasing service) who first arrive randomly at the company and have specific hire duration preferences. We derive the closed-form optimal rationing and pricing policy, and also discuss the effect of capacity constraints and customer dynamic arrivals on the optimal allocation policy. In the setting with the same hire duration preference, the capacity constraint has a greater effect over time for customers with the same entry date and dynamic customer arrivals accelerate the increasing effect of capacity constraints compared with the case of simultaneous entries. In the setting with different hire duration preferences, the effect of the capacity constraint increases for the low-type customers and decreases for the high-type customers. Dynamic arrivals only exacerbate the increasing effect of the capacity constraint for consistent low-type customers.

摘要

集装箱租赁是一个蓬勃发展的行业，其特点是多单元需求、垄断供应和长期客户关系。有限容量和动态客户到达带来的限制意味着租赁公司必须解决分配和定价问题。在这项研究中，我们调查了一家租赁公司的动态配给和非线性定价问题，该租赁公司拥有高类型和低类型客户（通过租赁服务的每次估值来区分），这些客户首先随机到达公司并具有特定的租用期限喜好。我们推导了封闭式最优配给和定价策略，并讨论了容量约束和客户动态到达对最优分配策略的影响。在具有相同雇佣期限偏好的设置中，随着时间的推移，容量限制对具有相同进入日期的客户产生更大的影响，与同时进入的情况相比，动态客户到达加速了容量限制的增加影响。在具有不同租用期限偏好的设置中，容量约束的影响对低类型客户增加，而对高类型客户减少。动态到达只会加剧容量限制对一致的低类型客户的影响。容量约束的影响对低类型客户增加，对高类型客户减少。动态到达只会加剧容量限制对一致的低类型客户的影响。容量约束的影响对低类型客户增加，对高类型客户减少。动态到达只会加剧容量限制对一致的低类型客户的影响。