Ebook: Pro-active Dynamic Vehicle Routing: Real-Time Control and Request-Forecasting Approaches to Improve Customer Service

This book deals with transportation processes denoted as the Real-time Distribution of Perishable Goods (RDOPG). The book presents three contributions that are made to the field of transportation. First, a model considering the minimization of customer inconvenience is formulated. Second, a pro-active real-time control approach is proposed. Stochastic knowledge is generated from past request information by a new forecasting approach and is used in the pro-active approach to guide vehicles to request-likely areas before real requests arrive there. Various computational results are presented to show that in many cases the pro-active approach is able to achieve significantly improved results. Moreover, a measure for determining the structural quality of request data sets is also proposed. The third contribution of this book is a method that is presented for considering driver inconvenience aspects which arise from vehicle en-route diversion activities. Specifically, this method makes it possible to restrict the number of performed vehicle en-route diversion activities.​

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This book deals with transportation processes denoted as the Real-time Distribution of Perishable Goods (RDOPG). The book presents three contributions that are made to the field of transportation. First, a model considering the minimization of customer inconvenience is formulated. Second, a pro-active real-time control approach is proposed. Stochastic knowledge is generated from past request information by a new forecasting approach and is used in the pro-active approach to guide vehicles to request-likely areas before real requests arrive there. Various computational results are presented to show that in many cases the pro-active approach is able to achieve significantly improved results. Moreover, a measure for determining the structural quality of request data sets is also proposed. The third contribution of this book is a method that is presented for considering driver inconvenience aspects which arise from vehicle en-route diversion activities. Specifically, this method makes it possible to restrict the number of performed vehicle en-route diversion activities.?

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This book deals with transportation processes denoted as the Real-time Distribution of Perishable Goods (RDOPG). The book presents three contributions that are made to the field of transportation. First, a model considering the minimization of customer inconvenience is formulated. Second, a pro-active real-time control approach is proposed. Stochastic knowledge is generated from past request information by a new forecasting approach and is used in the pro-active approach to guide vehicles to request-likely areas before real requests arrive there. Various computational results are presented to show that in many cases the pro-active approach is able to achieve significantly improved results. Moreover, a measure for determining the structural quality of request data sets is also proposed. The third contribution of this book is a method that is presented for considering driver inconvenience aspects which arise from vehicle en-route diversion activities. Specifically, this method makes it possible to restrict the number of performed vehicle en-route diversion activities.?
Content:
Front Matter....Pages I-LII
Introduction....Pages 1-14
Introduction to Tour Planning: Vehicle Routing and Related Problems....Pages 15-79
The Considered RDOPG Applications....Pages 81-91
Review of the Literature Related to the Considered RDOPG Applications....Pages 93-147
A New Deterministic Real-Time Control Approach for RDOPG Applications....Pages 149-165
A New Forecasting Approach for Generating Stochastic Knowledge from Past Request Information and Utilizing the Stochastic Knowledge....Pages 167-183
The Proposed Tabu Search Solution Method....Pages 185-201
Computational Results....Pages 203-266
Summary and Outlook on Future Work....Pages 267-280
Back Matter....Pages 281-319

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This book deals with transportation processes denoted as the Real-time Distribution of Perishable Goods (RDOPG). The book presents three contributions that are made to the field of transportation. First, a model considering the minimization of customer inconvenience is formulated. Second, a pro-active real-time control approach is proposed. Stochastic knowledge is generated from past request information by a new forecasting approach and is used in the pro-active approach to guide vehicles to request-likely areas before real requests arrive there. Various computational results are presented to show that in many cases the pro-active approach is able to achieve significantly improved results. Moreover, a measure for determining the structural quality of request data sets is also proposed. The third contribution of this book is a method that is presented for considering driver inconvenience aspects which arise from vehicle en-route diversion activities. Specifically, this method makes it possible to restrict the number of performed vehicle en-route diversion activities.?
Content:
Front Matter....Pages I-LII
Introduction....Pages 1-14
Introduction to Tour Planning: Vehicle Routing and Related Problems....Pages 15-79
The Considered RDOPG Applications....Pages 81-91
Review of the Literature Related to the Considered RDOPG Applications....Pages 93-147
A New Deterministic Real-Time Control Approach for RDOPG Applications....Pages 149-165
A New Forecasting Approach for Generating Stochastic Knowledge from Past Request Information and Utilizing the Stochastic Knowledge....Pages 167-183
The Proposed Tabu Search Solution Method....Pages 185-201
Computational Results....Pages 203-266
Summary and Outlook on Future Work....Pages 267-280
Back Matter....Pages 281-319
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