Container terminal is not only the area for storing inbound and outbound containers，but also the place for pickup． Because of the uncertainty of pickup time，terminal operators have to rehandle the containers frequently which incur significant cost to the operators． In order to reduce the cost in rehandling，a time window mechanism for container pickup was introduced． A function of the subsidies to the terminal operators and a function of rehandling costs to the consignees were constructed． Based on these functions，the distribution of pickup times and the formulation of rehandling times were derived． Then，the problem of optimal pickup time windows allocation was proposed and the model was constructed． Because of the high computational complexity，a genetic algorithm was developed． Finally，a numerical example was given in two different modes，and the sensitivity analysis was conducted． By applying the time windows allocation mechanism，the rehandling operations were greatly reduced，and both of the operational efficiency and the expected profits of the terminal operators were improved significantly．