Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The pandemic has highlighted the importance of goods movements to the Canadian economy and to the well-being of Canadians. During the recent economic shutdown, total trips on Ontario highways declined by about 40%, but freight traffic remained almost steady and continued to supply essential services such as hospitals, groceries, gas stations, and major distribution centres (MDCs). The proposed research is designed to develop a set of pre-emptive transportation strategies, called mobility interventions, to minimize the spread of communicable disease among truck drivers and MDC workers, and to improve transport logistics in emergencies. This research has value today and is also important when we consider the impact of future possible public emergencies such as communicable disease spread by a contaminated food/water supply. The proposed research should help the e-commerce, supply chain and logistics industries to improve the safety, reliability and resilience of freight delivery while maintaining the most important overall consideration: public health. The study's five-year objectives are: 1) Develop a scientific process to identify changes in preferred truck rest facilities before and during large-scale public emergencies; 2) Develop a mathematical algorithm to screen MDCs and predict traffic flow patterns to/from MDCs; 3) Develop a pre-emptive resource allocation model for the truck rest facilities/amenities identified; 4) Develop a mathematical model to prioritize the provision of truck rest facilities; 5) Develop a model to identify and prioritize the public transit routes most important to MDC commuters who commute by transit; 6) Develop a model using multi-objective optimization techniques to determine optimal transit services during a public emergency; 7) Develop physical distancing indicators to provide a quantitative evaluation of the relative risk of communicable disease transmission among MDC workers who commute by active transportation; and 8) Analyze 911 call data to investigate the impact of major public emergencies on freight transportation, supply chains and logistics during a major health crisis. The proposed research has many benefits including: 1) Identifying important opportunities for e-commerce/logistics companies to increase their competitiveness and to improve customer experience and confidence by providing healthier and safer delivery experiences; 2) Improving the overall efficiency of the entire supply chain by minimizing business closures during major public emergencies; 3) Enabling governing authorities to introduce mobility interventions for the freight industry to accommodate increased e-commerce; 4) Strengthening the competitiveness and confidence of freight industry and help the recovery of Canadian economy; and 5) Providing a unique opportunity for HQPs to interact with domain professionals to gain the needed skill sets to become job-ready and to promote the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Canadian Workforce.