Container drayage refers to the transportation of containers by trucks between major intermodal facilities and logistics centers. As a premier national freight hub, the Chicago metro region generates and receives about 8 million containers every year. Many of these containers are moved by heavy-duty diesel trucks from the intermodal rail yard to local logistics centers, or vice versa, resulting in a significant amount of drayage truck traffic, greenhouse emissions, and pollutions in and around the region. To mitigate the negative emission impacts, understanding the container drayage operation patterns and optimal electrification pathways is necessary, yet both remain poorly understood. To this end, the objectives of this project are twofold. First, we aim to create a first-of-its-kind methodology that can leverage multi-sourced data to estimate regional container drayage flows. Second, we aim to develop an optimization framework to explore electrification scenarios encompassing charging infrastructure and drayage operations with demonstration of its application in the Chicago metro region.

• Collect and fuse multi-sourced data pertinent to container logistics in the Chicago metro region. 
• Develop a first-of-its-kind methodology to estimate container drayage movement in the region and demonstrate application of the methodology.
• Formulate a novel mathematical model for electric truck charging infrastructure planning and operation optimization.
• Design customized solution algorithms to efficiently solve the mathematical model for regional-scale problem sizes.
• Implement data, model, and solution algorithm in the Chicago metro region to generate drayage electrification scenarios and identify best infrastructure development and operation pathways.

• The proposed research will provide much needed knowledge and insights about electrification needs for moving containerized freight in and around the Chicago metropolitan region, a premier national freight hub in the US. The project nicely complements other passenger-focused research within CLEETS. The simultaneous consideration of electrifying both freight and passenger transportation is necessary and will provide a more comprehensive picture of clean transportation planning and operation. The research will also inform the investigation of freight research on the UK side. 

This projects seeks to understand the charging needs for electrified container drayage in the Chicago region, investigate the optimal infrastructure deployment and the associated truck fleet operations, and assess the consequent economic and climate change benefits.

• Journal Paper (under review): Terminal-to-terminal container drayage problems considering truck automation and platooning. 
  

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