Computer simulation for the management of parking areas in a ferry terminal

In this article the problem of managing car/passengers parking area in port terminals is analyzed. Ferry terminals have often restricted parking areas for loading vehicles. This is the reason why the departures of the ferries are scheduled opportunely allocating loading areas dynamically. When one or more departure delays occur, the assessment of the required parking areas becomes problematic. To support the manager in this hard and critical task, a computer simulation-based software is proposed to improve parking areas use and responsiveness during arrival, parking and loading activities. The simulation model considers the main characteristics of the parking area (dimensions, layout, number of piers), ferry traffic and capacity, time of departure, etc.. The same software is also used to analyze and evaluate a potential alternative re-designed layout.. In particular, three re-designed parking area layouts are evaluated with the implemented simulating software. For this aim, three suitable performance indexes for evaluating layout efficiency are established. The proposed simulating model and results are described presenting an actually applied case for a medium port in the Mediterranean sea.