Dynamic vehicle dispatching: Optimal heavy traffic performance and practical insights

Dynamic vehicle dispatching: Optimal heavy traffic performance and practical insights

0.00 Avg rating0 Votes
Article ID: iaor20011340
Country: United States
Volume: 47
Issue: 5
Start Page Number: 675
End Page Number: 692
Publication Date: Sep 1999
Journal: Operations Research
Authors: ,
Keywords: transportation: road
Abstract:

We analyze a general model of dynamic vehicle dispatching systems in which congestion is the primary measure of performance. In the model, a finite collection of tours are dynamically dispatched to deliver loads that arrive randomly over time. A load waits in queue until it is assigned to a tour. This representation, which is analogous to classical set-covering models, can be used to study a variety of dynamic routing and load consolidation problems. We characterize the optimal work in the system in heavy traffic using a lower bound from our earlier work and an upper bound which is based on a simple batching policy. These results give considerable insight into how various parameters of the problem affect system congestion. In addition, our analysis suggests a practical heuristic which, in simulation experiments, significantly outperforms more conventional dispatching policies. The heuristic uses a few simple principles to control congestion, principles which can be easily incorporated within classical, static routing algorithms.

Reviews

Required fields are marked *. Your email address will not be published.