Currently freight transport faces two challenges. Firstly, it needs to evolve towards a more sustainable system. At the same time, it needs to be able to handle the increase in transport demand in the coming years. Intermodal transport might be a solution as it combines different modes of transport (rail, inland waterways and road) within a single transport chain. As such, it ensures more effective and sustainable freight transport services. At MOBI, we have developed two transport models to measure the economic, environmental and societal success of decisions and actions made by public and private stakeholders.
TRANSPORT AGENT-BASED MODEL (TRABAM)
The Transport Agent-Based Model, or TRABAM, is a freight transport model for the Belgian territory. It simulates the behaviour of transport companies, optimizing departure time, vehicle choice, routing and loading rate on a one-day basis. The model includes road, rail and inland waterway transport, and combines it with detailed information on vehicle fleet composition and transport demand. It can differentiate according to the used loading unit and is able to perform detailed external cost calculations.
The applications of this model are versatile. On the one hand, this simulator allows companies to investigate whether new transport concepts are a profitable and sustainable option for them and to make decisions on the vehicle, departure time and route choice. It has already proven to be successful with companies such as Colruyt.
On the other hand, it also has a policy purpose. It is used to analyse different policy measures for the Flemish government to reach the CO2reductions goals for freight transport. Pricing policies, off-hour deliveries, the introduction of new technologies or electric vehicles and urban distribution concepts can be simulated.
SYMBIT
SYMBIT is a synchromodal computation model for Belgian and non-Belgian territory. It simulates modal choice alternatives, the combination of freight deliveries and their impact in terms of cost, delivery time and emissions. The simulations are conducted from an individual (company) perspective as well as a system (region or city) perspective.
With SYMBIT you can test current practices and new autonomous systems and structures. Additionally, it can simulate and evaluate movements of physical assets based on firing rules and triggering events. Due to its characteristics, such as the inclusion of stochastic and dynamic interactions, SYMBIT is applicable in a wide variety of situations. It can be used for the bundling of fragmented flows, modal shift assessments, increasing fill rates, disruption management and supply chain resilience, fleet and process automation, …
SYMBIT considers all modes of transport and is useful for logistics service providers, shippers, governmental organizations, ports and terminals.
