This paper focuses on vehicle routing and scheduling procedures using advanced information systems in urban areas. Freight carriers have depots and their pickup/delivery trucks depart from the depot and visit customers with designated time windows for collecting or delivering goods and return to the depot. This paper presents a dynamic vehicle routing and scheduling model with real time traffic information, in particular variable travel times on roads. The uncertainty of travel times effects the identification of the optimal routes and schedules of pickup/delivery trucks on very congested urban roads. Recently the implementation of advanced information systems allows freight carriers to use historical and real-time travel time data on urban roads. This paper develops a model to quantify the benefits of considering the uncertainty of travel times in order to rationalize logistics systems and reduce the negative impacts of goods movement on the environment.
Abstract