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ABSTRACT
Log transportation accounts for a significant portion of the total delivered cost of logs due to the considerable number of truckloads between origins and destinations. Hence, an efficient transportation plan at the operational level can generate cost savings for forest companies. In this paper, a mixed integer linear programming model is developed for daily routing and scheduling of heterogeneous trucks considering synchronization constraints. Continuous time representation is used for modeling the problem to generate accurate schedules and to synchronize the trucks and loaders at cut blocks and sort yards. Compatibility requirements, overtime, and decisions related to the trucking contractors are incorporated in the model. The outputs of the model include the number of trucks utilized by each contractor, the arrival times and waiting times of trucks at each location, the detailed schedule of loaders, and the amount of overtime assigned to the drivers. To validate the model, it is applied to test problems from a case of a Canadian forest company, where transportation activities are contracted out. Results show it is more economical to pay overtime than dispatching additional trucks to carry logs. Additionally, variable costs and maximum driving time have the most impact on the total transportation cost.
Acknowledgements
This research is funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC RGPIN-2019-04563); and Mitacs and the forest company (MITACS IT12394). We also thank the forest company for their support in obtaining data and validating our model and results.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Supplemental data
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14942119.2023.2291960.