Combined fleet deployment and inventory management in roll-on/roll-off shipping

•Extension to the fleet deployment problem in roll-on/roll-off liner shipping.•New model to incorporate inventory management of cargo along with fleet deployment.•Novel mixed integer linear programming model presented for the problem extension.•Rolling horizon based heuristic proposed as a solution methodology.

In maritime transportation of automobiles, roll-on/roll-off (ro–ro) shipping companies operate liner shipping services across major trade routes. Large ro–ro shipping companies are well placed to offer end-to-end integrated logistics services to auto manufacturers engaged in international trade of vehicles. Therefore, we present a new mixed integer programming model for fleet deployment including inventory management at the ports along each trade route. Due to the complexity of the problem, a rolling horizon heuristic (RHH) is proposed. The RHH solves the problem by iteratively solving sub-problems with shorter planning horizon. Computational results based on real instances are presented.