Modelling and advanced optimisation methods for the multi-shift full truckload vehicle routing problem

This thesis is concerned with a real-world multi-shift drayage problem at a large international port with multiple docks being operated simultaneously. Several important issues in the drayage problem are identified and a set covering model is developed based on a novel route representation. The mode...

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Main Author: Xue, Ning
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39865/
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author Xue, Ning
author_facet Xue, Ning
author_sort Xue, Ning
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This thesis is concerned with a real-world multi-shift drayage problem at a large international port with multiple docks being operated simultaneously. Several important issues in the drayage problem are identified and a set covering model is developed based on a novel route representation. The model adopts an implicit solution representation to reduce the problem size and aims to find a set of vehicle routes with minimum total cost to deliver all commodities within their time windows. As accurate travel time prediction is necessary to construct the vehicle routes, a short-haul travel time prediction model and an algorithm using real-life GPS data are studied. The output of the prediction model can be used as an input for the set covering model. The set covering model for the multi-shift full truckload transportation problem can be directly solved by a commercial solver for small problems, but results in prohibitive computation time for even moderate-sized problems. In order to solve medium- and large-sized instances, we proposed a 3-stage hybrid solution method and applied it to solve real-life instances at a large international port in China. It was shown that the method is able to find solutions that are very close to the lower bounds. In addition, we also proposed a more efficient hybrid branch-and-price approach. Results show the method performed well and is more suited for solving real-life, large-sized drayage operation problems.
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spelling nottingham-398652025-02-28T11:53:34Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39865/ Modelling and advanced optimisation methods for the multi-shift full truckload vehicle routing problem Xue, Ning This thesis is concerned with a real-world multi-shift drayage problem at a large international port with multiple docks being operated simultaneously. Several important issues in the drayage problem are identified and a set covering model is developed based on a novel route representation. The model adopts an implicit solution representation to reduce the problem size and aims to find a set of vehicle routes with minimum total cost to deliver all commodities within their time windows. As accurate travel time prediction is necessary to construct the vehicle routes, a short-haul travel time prediction model and an algorithm using real-life GPS data are studied. The output of the prediction model can be used as an input for the set covering model. The set covering model for the multi-shift full truckload transportation problem can be directly solved by a commercial solver for small problems, but results in prohibitive computation time for even moderate-sized problems. In order to solve medium- and large-sized instances, we proposed a 3-stage hybrid solution method and applied it to solve real-life instances at a large international port in China. It was shown that the method is able to find solutions that are very close to the lower bounds. In addition, we also proposed a more efficient hybrid branch-and-price approach. Results show the method performed well and is more suited for solving real-life, large-sized drayage operation problems. 2017-01-15 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39865/1/NingXue-6512783-Thesis-Final.pdf Xue, Ning (2017) Modelling and advanced optimisation methods for the multi-shift full truckload vehicle routing problem. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. Full truckload transport Drayage operations Vehicle routing Service network design
spellingShingle Full truckload transport
Drayage operations
Vehicle routing
Service network design
Xue, Ning
Modelling and advanced optimisation methods for the multi-shift full truckload vehicle routing problem
title Modelling and advanced optimisation methods for the multi-shift full truckload vehicle routing problem
title_full Modelling and advanced optimisation methods for the multi-shift full truckload vehicle routing problem
title_fullStr Modelling and advanced optimisation methods for the multi-shift full truckload vehicle routing problem
title_full_unstemmed Modelling and advanced optimisation methods for the multi-shift full truckload vehicle routing problem
title_short Modelling and advanced optimisation methods for the multi-shift full truckload vehicle routing problem
title_sort modelling and advanced optimisation methods for the multi-shift full truckload vehicle routing problem
topic Full truckload transport
Drayage operations
Vehicle routing
Service network design
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39865/