Real-time information for improved efficiency of commercial vehicle operations. Research report

This work identifies and investigates potential uses of real-time information for the efficient management of carrier operations. In truckload and less-than-truckload (LTL) operations, carriers typically know only a portion of the loads that must be moved more than a few hours before the loads are to be moved. The assignment of an available driver to a load takes place in real-time or shortly after the request is received. The load acceptance decision made by a carrier must also be executed in real-time, and may have a significant impact on the carrier`s ability to accept other loads requested in the near future. This research explores ways to make `good` assignment, and ultimately load acceptance decisions, that lead to overall cost effective operations, but rely on local (current) rather than long term or forecast information.