Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The Canadian Trucking Alliance reports that in 2006 an average of 24 trucks crossed the Canadian-US border every minute. Transportation companies have to provide high quality service to their customers, while maintaining their profitability. Therefore, transporters are faced with the daily task of delivering the right product to the right place at the right time at a minimum cost. This task becomes increasingly difficult when considering the daily uncertainties faced by transporters. For example, travel times may be influenced by traffic congestions, weather conditions and accidents. These not only increase the transporter's operational cost, but they may also hamper planned arrival times at a customer location. The first aim of the research program is to provide models that capture such uncertainties in the operations of transporters, and to develop solution methods that yield high quality solutions within a reasonable computational time. Transportation companies are also faced with the question of how many vehicles they need to purchase and of which type. This question is of a strategic nature, and thus answering it requires estimating the long-term requirements of the transportation company. The second aim of the research program is to develop models that capture the operational cost of transports at an aggregate level. Efficient solution procedures will then be developed and ultimately determine the required fleet composition. WWF-Canada reports that road transportation accounts for 19% of the country's total greenhouse gas. Transportation companies as well as regional and local authorities are attempting to find innovative transportation solutions that will decrease emissions while not compromising profitability. In this context, the third part of the research program studies the potential in reducing the number of vehicle movements in an urban environment. This reduction is to be achieved by consolidating and coordinating demands of various transporters. The aim of the third part of the research program is to model such collaborations and to identify the cost structures that will induce them.