Dynamic scheduling of recreational rental vehicles with revenue management extensions

The rental fleet scheduling problem (RFSP) arises in vehicle-rental operations that offer a wide variety of vehicle types to customers, and allow a rented vehicle to ‘migrate’ to a setdown depot other than the pickup depot. When there is a shortage of vehicles of a particular type at a depot, vehicles may be relocated to that depot, or vehicles of similar types may be substituted. The RFSP involves assigning vehicles to rentals so as to minimise the costs of these operations, and arises in both static and online contexts. The authors have adapted a well-known assignment algorithm for application in the online context. In addition, a network-flow algorithm with more comprehensive coverage of problem conditions is used to investigate the determination of rental pricing using revenue management principles. The paper concludes with an outline of the algorithms’ use in supporting the operations of a large recreational vehicle rental company.