PROPOSAL OF AN OPTIMIZATION MODEL FOR DRY PORT APPLICATION FOR CONTAINER TRANSPORTATION FROM KOCAELI PORTS

Increased maritime transport due to global trade has a significant impact on the ports, which are the gateways of countries to trade. Ports make investment plans in order to maintain their competitiveness in the face of increasing freight traffic and also apply various measures in order to store more containers in their storage areas. In the Kocaeli region, the primary method for ports that are stuck in a narrow area is to gain space by filling the sea. However, it is thought that the dry port application, which is becoming more widespread in the world, can be a remedy for Kocaeli container terminals that might suffer from lack of space. The benefits of a dry port application in a circumstance when the seaport has capacity constraints have been examined by developing an optimization model provided that the seaport has a railway connection and is collaborating with that dry port. As a result of this study, it has been understood that all actors involved in container transportation can benefit to a certain level. It is thought that the developed mathematical model in this study can help the decision-making process of port operators.