Method of operating a container carrier terminal

A method of operating a container carrier terminal, comprising the steps of:

• providing a computer implemented container carrier terminal system comprising a model of said container carrier terminal executed on data processing equipment, said model comprising representations of terminal resources and terminal constraints relating to said terminal resources, wherein said terminal resources comprise a plurality of quay cranes and said representations of terminal resources including representations of said plurality of quay cranes;
• inputting, in said container carrier terminal system a plurality of container carrier entries, each container carrier entry relating to a container carrier and associated with a preliminary terminal resource demand including a tentative arrival time, wherein said tentative arrival time is indicative of arrival of said container carrier to said container carrier terminal;
• allocating a respective subset of said terminal resources to each container carrier entry of said plurality of container carrier entries to obtain a preliminary terminal resource plan of allocated terminal resources, wherein said step of allocating terminal resources comprises automatically validating said allocated terminal resources of the container carrier entries,
• the allocated terminal resources including a subset of said plurality of quay cranes, wherein the validating includes automatically establishing whether the allocated terminal resources of the container carrier entries comply with said terminal constraints and said preliminary terminal resource demand associated with said plurality of container carrier entries;
• providing an updated terminal resource demand relating to at least one of said plurality of container carrier entries;
• and
• processing an updated terminal resource plan on the basis of said updated terminal resource demand by means of said computer implemented container carrier terminal system.

A container carrier terminal system comprising data processing equipment configured to execute a model of a container carrier terminal, said model comprising representations of terminal resources and terminal constraints relating to said terminal resources;

• said terminal resources comprising a plurality of quay cranes and said representations of terminal resources including representations of said plurality of quay cranes;
• the container carrier terminal system comprising an input configured to receive a plurality of container carrier entries, each container carrier entry relating to a container carrier and associated with a preliminary resource demand including a tentative arrival time, wherein said tentative arrival time is indicative of arrival of said container carrier to said container carrier terminal;
• the container carrier terminal system being configured to allocate a respective subset of said terminal resources to each container carrier entry of said plurality of container carrier entries to obtain a preliminary terminal resource plan of allocated terminal resources, wherein said allocation comprises automatically validating and/or distributing terminal resources, including said plurality of quay cranes, to said plurality of container carrier entries to comply with said terminal constraints and said preliminary terminal resource demand associated with said plurality of container carrier entries;
• and
• the container carrier terminal system being configured to process an updated terminal resource plan on the basis of an updated terminal resource demand relating to said plurality of container carrier entries.