<p>ABSTRACT</p><p>The drayage problem, that of sequencing deliveries of empty and full containers on a network of rail yards and customers, is a pressing issue in intermodal traffic, and particularly in the Chicago area, which is known for its congestion issues. We consider an arc-based formulation for the problem that furthers the published work in the field by addressing time windows. We show that even for small problems, the arc-based formulation results in very large models that require significant computation to solve. INTRODUCTION Chicago, with 26 operating rail yards and 25,000 container lifts per day, is a significant hub for intermodal transportation. However, the hub is congested; there are significant problems with traffic and pollution that have led Chicago to be known as the “black hole” of intermodal freight. </p><p>The problems at the interface of truck and rail include: lack of coordination by railroads on where containers should be lifted; lack of uniform equipment; schedules and takedown times vary; finally, the city has concerns over pollution, congestion, road damage, and safety.</p><p>This project, part of a larger study of intermodal rail in Chicago, focuses on the logistics problems faced by the trucking companies. The question we try to solve is: given a fleet of trucks and a set of container movements, what is the most efficient assignment and sequencing of moves to trucks? MODEL COMPONENTS</p><p>Customers Shippers – product moves from customer to railyard Consignees – product moves from railyard to customer</p><p>Customer behavior Stay With – driver arrives with an empty container; waits for it to be filled; then moves to the railyard (opposite for consignees) Drop and Pick – driver arrives without a container; picks up already-loaded container; delivers to railyard</p><p>Multiple railyards</p><p>Container yards (empty container storage)</p><p>Deadlines and release times for containers at railyard</p><p>Time windows for each customer</p><p>Dwell times to model wait at customer site </p>