Improving Empty Container Management Using Street Turn

This case study addresses the problem of empty container repositioning in the Colombian context at a regional scale. The research was motivated by the massive empty container congestion in 2022 in specific nodes of the logistics network. The mixed methods approach proposed in this research considered a qualitative and quantitative method that aim to clarify the causes of inefficiency in the system and formulate improvement strategies. Th street-turn has proved to be the strategy with better fit to increase efficiency in the ECR system. To measure the potential gains of street-turn, a matching algorithm has been developed to pair empty containers with export loads, with the objective of achieving more efficient utilization of vehicles in the network. The optimization model results confirm significant cost savings and reduction of empty trips for selected regions in Colombia. However, the reach of the algorithm is limited by the high trade container imbalances. Further, it has been possible to identify that the actors involved in the ECR system at a regional level lack incentives to collaborate, setting this a barrier to the implementation of street-turn.