MHCL 2024 conference

Abstract: Throughout this paper we attempt on the one hand to describe the objective function that represents the profit of a Pure Car and Truck Carrier (PCTC) company operating a number of vessels and on the other hand to optimize the network of calling ports of the corresponding vessels and the cargo loaded and unloaded with respect to the enhancement of the economic results. The optimization is carried out with the use of genetic algorithms, aided by decision trees,  where needed, eventually ameliorating the profits. The improved results highlight the worthiness of this method instead of following a classical combinatorial optimization problem solving strategy  and favor the use of such methodology by PCTC shipping companies.