Real-time Decentralized Framework for Technology-Enabled Intermodal Freight Transport

This study addresses the less than truckload pickup and delivery problem where carriers collaborate in a decentralized and dynamic manner. It is assumed that carriers do not have any collaboration agreement with one another; however, they collaborate indirectly due to the need to outsource jobs and/or the opportunity to bid for jobs to increase profit. In the context of this study, trucks operate independently and make decisions on outsourcing and insourcing of jobs on their own. To address this problem, an approach based on a multi-round combinatorial auction (CA) is proposed. The novelty of the proposed approach is that in each round of the auction, trucks can bid for multiple bundles in contrast to the commonly used approach of a single bundle. The multiple bundles consist of the most profitable bundle that is determined by each truck and all or some subsets of this bundle. For the proposed multi-round CA approach, two integer programming models are developed: 1) for trucks to select the bundle of jobs to bid in real-time, and 2) for the central clearinghouse to select the winning trucks. Numerical experiments are conducted using an actual transportation network with up to 50 hypothetical jobs to be completed by five carriers. The results indicate that the proposed auction method provides a higher profit in all instances tested.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $154911
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3551747117

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  Center for Connected Multimodal Mobility

  Clemson University
  Clemson, SC  United States  29634

  University of South Carolina, Columbia

  502 Byrnes Building
  Columbia, SC  United States  29208

  Clemson University

  110 Lowry Hall
  Box 340911
  Clemson, SC  United States  29634-0911

  Benedict College

  1600 Harden Street
  Columbia, South Carolina  United States  29204
• Managing Organizations:

  University of South Carolina, Columbia

  502 Byrnes Building
  Columbia, SC  United States  29208
• Project Managers:

  Huynh, Nathan

• Performing Organizations:

  University of South Carolina, Columbia

  502 Byrnes Building
  Columbia, SC  United States  29208

  Clemson University

  110 Lowry Hall
  Box 340911
  Clemson, SC  United States  29634-0911

  Benedict College

  1600 Harden Street
  Columbia, South Carolina  United States  29204
• Principal Investigators:

  Huynh, Nathan

• Start Date: 20210915
• Expected Completion Date: 20220916
• Actual Completion Date: 20231010
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cooperation; Decentralization; Freight consolidators; Intermodal terminals; Logistics; Routing
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01838173
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Center for Connected Multimodal Mobility
• Contract Numbers: 69A3551747117
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Mar 6 2022 3:07PM