Continuous growth in the volume of containers has placed significant burdens on the landside operations of
seaports. Many seaports are facing serious congestion both at gate and in yard due to a large number of trucks
arriving at terminal during peak periods. Meanwhile, serious congestion leads to longer truck waiting time,
higher air pollution and lower terminal operation efficiency. Therefore, how to decrease the truck turn time in the
terminal is an important issue for terminal operator, truck fleet and government regulators.
In response to heavy congestion, ports like Vancouver, Los Angeles and Long Beach have implemented truck
appointment system (Morals and Lord, 2006). Using this system, terminal operator limits the maximum number