Creating schedules and computing operating costs for LTL load plans

Creating schedules and computing operating costs for LTL load plans

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Article ID: iaor20127834
Volume: 40
Issue: 3
Start Page Number: 691
End Page Number: 702
Publication Date: Mar 2013
Journal: Computers and Operations Research
Authors: , , ,
Keywords: combinatorial optimization
Abstract:

This paper presents a computational approach for creating an operational schedule for the tactical load plan used by a less‐than‐truckload (LTL) motor carrier. A load plan determines how freight is routed through an LTL carrier's linehaul terminal network by specifying a sequence of transfer terminals for all freight shipments, but does not provide a timed schedule of trailer, tractor, and driver dispatches required to operate the plan. Developing a detailed operational schedule allows one to more accurately estimate the likely cost of a given load plan, along with other important performance metrics. Given a load plan, the scheduling approach we develop creates loaded truck dispatches between terminals with specified time windows, and then creates cyclic driver schedules to cover all dispatches. A computational study using data from a large U.S. LTL carrier demonstrates that our technology produces schedules that accurately model operational costs, typically within 2% of actual reported costs.

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