Alternate mode dispatching: The impact of cost minimisation

When a shipper may use a variety of trucks to ship less-than-truckload shipments, shipping cost is the relevant criterion for evaluating alternate dispatches. This point is demonstrated by optimally solving 15 dispatching problems from industry in two ways, once minimising distance, and second time minimising costs, when a mixed private fleet and a common carrier are available. The distance minimising dispatches are, on the average, 35% more expensive than the corresponding cost minimising ones, but part of this difference stems from assumptions which are necessary to compare these two criteria.