We study the tactical problem of determining a last-mile delivery fleet size while accounting for day-to-day uncertainty in the number and location of customer requests. An optimally sized fleet must balance the cost of contracting vehicles against the penalty costs of unserved customers: a larger fleet reduces the risk of unserved demand, but a smaller … Read more
Public school bus routes can change from year to year as students and their home locations change. However, school administrators benefit from the ability to predict future transportation needs on multi-year time scales. With this motivation in mind, this paper develops planning models for school bus routing when student locations are not known with certainty. … Read more
Collection and delivery points (CDPs) allow logistics operators to consolidate multiple customer delivery requests on a single vehicle stop, reducing distribution costs. However, for customers to adopt CDPs, they must be willing to travel to a nearby CDP to pick up their parcels. This choice depends on the customer’s personal preferences, the proximity of CDPs, … Read more