By Shafagh Alaei Jordehi
Synchromodal transport offers a promising pathway toward more sustainable and efficient freight logistics by enabling dynamic switching between transport modes based on real-time network conditions.Despite its potential, the practical adoption of synchromodal transport remains limited due to a range of operational, technological, and institutional challenges. This dissertation addresses this gap by applying simulation and optimization methodologies to better understand and support the implementation ofsynchromodal practices.
The first part of the thesis reviews the literature to identify key barriers to synchromodal transport adoption and captures the factors and enablers that influence preparedness for synchromodal planning.
Building on these insights, the second part of this dissertation introduces an agent-based simulation model that captures actors’ behavior, logistical interdependencies, and the system’s dynamics. This model pro-vides a risk-free environment to assess the impacts of various planning and collaboration strategies onperformance indicators such as cost, reliability, flexibility and emissions. The model highlights the role of both flexible planning strategies and collaboration between logistics service providers in improving efficiency and service levels of the whole synchromodal network.
The model also examines how horizontal collaboration among logistics service providers affects each individual party, revealing that while joint planning can reduce system-wide costs and emissions, it may create challenges in profit allocation, particularly in cases of market imbalance.
Finally, the dissertation introduces a data-efficient optimization approach for the truck-depot allocation problem using Bayesian optimization. This surrogate-based method allows for efficient exploration of complex decision spaces under simulation-based performance evaluations.
Together, these contributions offer an integrated perspective on both challenges and enablers of synchromodal transport. By bridging stakeholders’ challenges and needs with simulation-based analysis and advanced optimization techniques, the thesis advances both theoretical understanding and practical decision support for accelerating synchromodal integration. The findings provide actionable insights for logistics practitioners, policymakers, and researchers aiming to design more resilient, collaborative, and sustainable freight transport systems.