An alternative tactic to deal with the contingency of driver absenteeism

M A Haughton ()
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M A Haughton: Wilfrid Laurier University

Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2009, vol. 60, issue 9, 1207-1220

Abstract: Abstract On any given workday, unexpected absence of drivers calls for emergency operational tactics to ensure completion of planned deliveries of merchandise to customers. A typical tactic in the workforce scheduling literature is to rely exclusively on a pool of workers who were not scheduled for work; that is, full-time off-duty drivers and part-time drivers. Concerns about the expense of maintaining a staff of part-timers prompt consideration of alternative tactics. This study proposes one such alternative. It minimizes the part-time pool by reassigning routes among drivers who show for work. In multi-route vehicle routing problems, the prospect of this alternative arises because cost-minimizing patterns of travel distances across routes often allow one driver to do extra work by handling more than one route (subject to time-window and workload constraints). By considering costs such as overtime rates when drivers perform extra (emergency) driving duties and the cost to maintain part-time staff, this study tests the efficacy of the aforementioned alternative. Its efficacy is confirmed by the fact that it is less costly than the typical tactic: while the typical tactic adds just over 22% to driver payroll, the proposed alternative adds a noticeably smaller cost of just under 15%.

Keywords: manpower planning; simulation; vehicle routing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602652

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