An innovative real-time fleet management system designed and implemented for eCourier Ltd (London, UK) is described. Both the business challenges and benefits of the implementation of a real-time fleet management system (with reference to empirical metrics such as courier efficiency, service times, and financial data), as well as the theoretical and implementation challenges of constructing such a system are outlined. The overall architecture is explained, including the main algorithms, the service territory zoning methodology, the travel time forecasting procedure and the job allocation heuristic. A novel allocation procedure based on a simulation-optimization methodology is presented for the job allocation heuristic. For the covering abstract see ITRD E134653.
Abstract