Fleet Sizing and Empty Equipment Redistribution for Center-Terminal Transportation Networks

Yafeng Du and Randolph Hall
Additional contact information
Yafeng Du: Consolidated Freightways, Inc., Portland, Oregon 97209
Randolph Hall: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089-0193

Management Science, 1997, vol. 43, issue 2, 145-157

Abstract: Fleet sizing and empty equipment redistribution are important issues in managing transportation systems. Most of the mathematical models that have been developed for these problems are complex and computationally demanding, including dynamic linear programming and stochastic/dynamic mathematical programs. Our research takes an alternate approach by building from inventory theory and developing decentralized stock control policies for empty equipment. This approach is applied to hub-and-spoke networks (i.e., center-terminal networks), by first analytically modeling the stochastic processes representing various stock-control variables, and then comparing the analytical results to monte-carlo simulations. A decomposition approach is also developed to determine stock-out probabilities as a function of the fleet size as a whole, and as a function of localized control parameters.

Date: 1997
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (40)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.43.2.145 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:43:y:1997:i:2:p:145-157

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Management Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().