Although the technical literature contains numerous efforts to simulate container terminal performance,
little attention has been paid to setting up, calibrating and validating models for handling equipment
activities. This paper presents results from the estimation of activity duration concerning three different
types of handling equipment: mobile harbor cranes, gantry cranes and reach stackers. Two estimation
approaches (sample means vs random variables) were investigated with respect to different hypotheses
with regard to activity aggregation and container type (undifferentiated, 20’, 40’, full or empty). A
concise but exhaustive state of art is proposed, an in-depth descriptive analysis of experimental data is
carried out, several probability distribution functions were tested and more than 60 statistical models are
proposed. The results can be easily implemented in any terminal simulation model.
