Truck Scheduling for Linehaul Operations with Small Amount of Shipment

소규모 물량을 가진 간선수송문제의 수송계획

One of the most important problems encountered by parcel transportation firms or LTL (Less-than-truckload) firms is the planning of daily linehaul operations. The transportation firm's goal is to determine the most efficient way to move all freight from its originating terminal to its destination terminal after each shipment is picked up from the shipping dock. The purpose of this study is to design a transportation system and develop an efficient scheduling algorithm for linehaul operations carrying small amount of shipment. This paper presents three approaches for efficient linehaul operations. The first approach examines drivers using the roundtrips which start from a terminal, visit several terminals, and return to the starting terminal. The second approach uses a freight assembly center where drivers take freight for a number of destination terminals which they then swap for freight for their starting terminal. The third approach is similar to the second approach in that it uses a transshipment point like a freight assembly terminal for shipment, but it has several transshipment points since each shipment may have a different transshipment point. In this study, we developed a mathematical formulation and algorithm for each approach. The experimental results using data of a LTL firm show that the third approach is more efficient than the other two. Mileage and overnight stays of the third approach are reduced by 10% and 30%, respectively.