Modeling fleet planning strategy based on multimode investment

After a survey of existing methods, a fleet planning mixed integer programming model based on multimode investment is developed in accordance with route and transport demand forecast under the fluctuant market environment. This optimization model not only considers investment alternatives to fleet capacity expansion concerning building new ships, purchase or sale of second-hand ships, charter ships, but also takes into account many factors such as the economic status of the ships, ship deployment, the investment capacity of enterprise, etc., as well as reflects how much weight the decision makers have given to physical value of the fleet at the end of the research horizon. Lastly, effectiveness of the proposed model was demonstrated using a shipping enterprise as an example. Results indicate that, the model well meets the practical needs of the fleet planning decision-making and ship operation organizations, thus it can be applied to the fleet planning study on industrial transport or liner trunk transport.