Zhang, M. ; Wu, Z., and Liu, C., 2019. Maritime routing problem with soft time windows in the One Belt, One Road Initiative.In: Li, L.; Wan, X.; and Huang, X. (eds.), Recent Developments in Practices and Research on Coastal Regions: Transportation, Environment and Economy. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 98, pp. 350–355. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

To establish the bilateral and multilateral mechanisms between China and relevant countries, the One Belt, One Road Initiative calls for more enterprises to enter into the economic partnership with other initiative-involved countries under the existing and effective regional cooperation platforms. Based on these requirements, the Maritime Silk Road also brings forth new challenges to transnational maritime transportation enterprises in these countries. Specifically, the differences in time zones and working hours between countries increase the difficulty of maritime transportation. If ships arrive earlier or later than their time windows, penalty fees will be charged. Therefore, companies are required to arrange transportation routes to save the costs as much as possible, provided that the customer's demands are met. This study investigates the maritime transportation routing problem with soft time windows and proposes an improved ant colony algorithm. A real example highlights the effectiveness of the algorithm. The results can assist enterprises in making decisions.