Less-than-Truckload Static Single-Carrier Collaboration Problem

The adoption of e-commerce and information communication technologies by carriers has generated new business and operational paradigms. Consequently, collaboration between carriers has emerged as a deployable alternative for small- to medium-sized less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers to improve fleet usage. This paper addresses a single carrier collaboration problem (SCCP) in which an LTL carrier of interest seeks to collaborate with other carriers by acquiring capacity to service excess demand. The SCCP problem is addressed from a static (planning) perspective to gain insights on the potential of the collaboration concept for carriers, and its ability to alleviate the effects of increased fuel prices. The study also explores the impact of the degree of collaboration represented by the collaborative discount rate on the carrier of interest. The collaborative strategies are compared to the option of no collaboration represented by the short-term leasing strategy, and the relative benefits of collaboration are computed. Single and multiple product SCCP problems are formulated as multi-commodity capacitated network design problems and are solved using CPLEX. Experiments are conducted to illustrate insights on the computational performance under varying factors, the effects of different degrees of collaboration, and the impacts of energy costs on the potential for collaboration. The results illustrate that a higher degree of collaboration leads to increased benefits for the carrier of interest and reduced dead-heading for the collaborating carriers. Collaboration also can be critical for the survival of the small- to medium-sized LTL carriers as energy prices escalate given the small industry-wide profit margins.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Hernandez, Salvador
  • Peeta, Srinivas
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 89th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2010-1-10 to 2010-1-14
• Date: 2010

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: DVD
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 22p
• Monograph Title: TRB 89th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Carriers; Cooperation; Deadheading; Less than truckload traffic; Static loads; Travel demand; Travel surveys; Truck traffic; Trucking
• Uncontrolled Terms: Fuel costs
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01155846
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 10-2574
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Apr 30 2010 12:52PM