| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣海洋大學 === 商船學系所 === 94 === It has always been the ultimate goal of container shipping companies around the world to establish a global service network to cope with the demands of their global accounts. The demand and supply of the complex web of global service are closely related, any changes in sequence of “port of calls” during the planning of the “container service routes” would have “inevitable” impact on the flow of containers among the ports. Likewise, when adjusting container service routes, planners are often challenged by the great impact resulting from each minor change made. Comparing with the planning of routes for land transportation, the planning of container service routes involve greater complexity and is therefore often completed through human efforts, including human coordination and assessment.
A trend in the academic field in recent years, therefore, is to conduct the service route planning with the aid of “mathematical models”. The purpose is to improve the efficiency and speed of the planning by the application of scientific models. The models developed, however, were found impractical in implementation, mainly due to the insufficient exchange of ideas between the scholars and the container shipping experts, as well as lack of detailed information, resulting in the negligence of “changing factors” often encountered in the practical planning process of the container service routes. Based on the experiences accumulated over the past years working in a container shipping company, and the opinions of experts obtained during our interview. I wish to provide here some practical suggestions concerning “key” and “limiting” elements in the application of mathematical models and correct flow process on container service route planning. Finally, I sincerely wish that this research paper will contribute to the relevant academic studies.
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