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: | Zhang Yang, Savelsbergh Martin W P, Erera Alan L, Hewitt Michael |
Keywords: | combinatorial optimization |
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.