Managing loading and discharging operations at cross-docking terminals

A cross-docking terminal is a relevant node within a distribution chain. Actually, at this intermediate logistic platform between suppliers and retailers, incoming flows of possible different commodities are consolidated into single shipments, with respect to the retailers’ orders, and directly delivered, skipping thus the storage phase. In such a context the synchronization of the inbound and outbound trucks is a necessary condition to guarantee fast and congestion-free transshipment operations. In this paper we propose a Mixed Integer Linear Program and a heuristic algorithm for managing the loading and discharging operations, with the aim of minimizing the completion time of the whole transshipment process.