Patent ID: 7155406

Claim:
A scheduling method for loading and unloading containers at a terminal, the method comprising steps of: establishing a yard information database by acquiring ship quay location data, container storage site data and a bay plan, wherein the bay plan includes information of specific cargo shipping position (S 100 ), establishing a container database including container loading-unloading schedules, container inventory remaining on a ship, and while loading-unloading containers, inputting outer source container loading-unloading schedule into said container database (S 102 ), setting shipping schedules, to facilitate efficient unloading and shipping operations, by establishing a shipping order database according to input from said container database, said bay plan, tidal information and a navigation schedule (S 104 ), unloading cargo from one of stand-by container ships by (S 200 ): retrieving said yard information database, receiving input data of port entering from said outer source, assigning an available quay location in response to said input data, identifying containers to be unloaded by means of said container database, and assigning an available container storage site based on the yard information database, loading cargo to one of stand-by container ships by (S 300 ): retrieving said yard information database, receiving input data of shipping order from said outer source, and identifying containers to be loaded by means of said container database, location of a container storage site, a cargo destination and a ship quay location, and storing and maintaining, based on the unloading (S 200 ) and loading (S 300 ) steps, the bay plan including information of loaded or unloaded containers, location of the container storage site, the cargo destinations and the ship quay location (S 400 ).