ocean carriers, land carriers and port terminal operators provide transportation services in maritime freight transportation networks. Port terminal operators, providing transportation services within a port complex, are regarded as a special type of the carrier. Ocean carriers typically transport freight between ports via waterways; port terminal operators handle freight within their port complex; and land carriers deliver freight from port terminal to inland destinations. the three types of carriers make decisions one prices and delivery routes (or port services) at different parts of the multimodal freight networks, having hierarchical interactions.
the structure of the paper is as follows. the next section presents an up-to-date literature review of the existing models that predict maritime freight movements. the third section defines the research problem with network structures and modeling approaches. the fourth section formulates individual carrier models and a three level model. the fifth section develops a solution algorithm. the sixth section deploys a numerical example to demonstrate the applicability of the model. The last section concludes the and suggests directions for future research.