The ship routing and freight assignment problem for daily frequency operation of maritime liner shipping

•We investigate the ship routing and freight assignment problem for daily frequency operations in liner shipping.•A Lagrangian-relaxation-based heuristic is proposed to solve the resulting problem.•The numerical results show that the proposed solution method is effective and efficient.•The factors that influence the daily frequency operations are identified and discussed.

To cope with excess capacity and improve service quality, maritime international liner carriers have recently adopted a new operational model known as daily frequency. In this new model, carriers provide daily pickup and delivery service to customers at major ports along the Pacific Rim. We investigate the ship routing and freight assignment problem for daily frequency operation of liner shipping. A solution procedure that incorporates a Lagrangian relaxation technique and local search was proposed. The numerical results show that Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore are ports that are ideal for carriers in establishing daily frequency operations along the Pacific Rim.