Core area territory planning for optimizing driver familiarity and route flexibility
First Claim
1. A method of optimizing a route plan having a plurality of routes within a service territory, comprising:
- dividing said service territory into a plurality of unassigned cells, wherein a subset of said plurality of unassigned cells is associated with a grid segment;
identifying from among a staff of drivers a most frequent driver for the grid segment based upon a grid segment visiting frequency calculated for said grid segment and each of said drivers during a reference period,wherein said grid segment visiting frequency represents a comparison between a number of stops in said grid segment by said driver during said reference period and a total number of stops by said driver during said reference period;
establishing a minimum grid segment visiting frequency limit; and
classifying said subset of said plurality of unassigned cells associated with said grid segment as a core cell;
assigning each said core cell to said identified most frequent driver, if said grid segment visiting frequency calculated for said cell and said most frequent driver is greater than said minimum grid segment visiting frequency limit,wherein said classifying and assigning optimizes said route plan by having each one of said plurality of routes with stops in a cell classified as a core cell served by said most frequent driver that is most familiar with each core cell that comprises said one of said plurality of routes.
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Abstract
Route planning methods for use by a package delivery service provider are disclosed that satisfy a stochastic daily demand while taking advantage of drivers'"'"' route familiarity over time. A model for estimating the value of driver familiarity is disclosed along with both an empirical and a mathematical model for estimating the value of route consistency, along with a Core Area Route Design which involves the concepts of combinational optimization, meta-heuristic algorithms, tabu search heuristics, network formulation modeling, and multi-stage graph modeling. In one embodiment, a service territory is divided into unassigned cells associated with a grid segment involving prior driver delivery stops, and a driver from a pool of unassigned drivers is assigned to a route based on examining each driver'"'"'s grid segment visiting frequency limit with respect to a minimum limit so as to optimize driver selection based on of each driver'"'"'s familiarity with the route.
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Citations
9 Claims
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1. A method of optimizing a route plan having a plurality of routes within a service territory, comprising:
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dividing said service territory into a plurality of unassigned cells, wherein a subset of said plurality of unassigned cells is associated with a grid segment; identifying from among a staff of drivers a most frequent driver for the grid segment based upon a grid segment visiting frequency calculated for said grid segment and each of said drivers during a reference period, wherein said grid segment visiting frequency represents a comparison between a number of stops in said grid segment by said driver during said reference period and a total number of stops by said driver during said reference period; establishing a minimum grid segment visiting frequency limit; and classifying said subset of said plurality of unassigned cells associated with said grid segment as a core cell; assigning each said core cell to said identified most frequent driver, if said grid segment visiting frequency calculated for said cell and said most frequent driver is greater than said minimum grid segment visiting frequency limit, wherein said classifying and assigning optimizes said route plan by having each one of said plurality of routes with stops in a cell classified as a core cell served by said most frequent driver that is most familiar with each core cell that comprises said one of said plurality of routes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method of optimizing a route plan having a plurality of routes within a service territory having unassigned cells, comprising:
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dividing said service territory into a plurality of grid segments, wherein a subset of said unassigned cells is associated with a grid segment; identifying from among a staff of drivers a most frequent driver for the grid segment based upon a grid segment visiting frequency calculated for said and each of said drivers during a reference period, wherein said grid segment visiting frequency represents a comparison between a number of stops in said grid segment by said driver during said reference period and a total number of stops by said driver during said reference period; establishing a minimum grid segment visiting frequency limit; and classifying said cells contained within said grid segment as a core cell; assigning each said core cell to said identified most frequent driver, if said grid segment visiting frequency calculated for said corresponding grid segment and said most frequent driver is greater than said minimum grid cell visiting frequency limit, wherein said classifying and assigning optimizes said route plan by having each one of said plurality of routes with stops in a cell classified as a core cell served by said most frequent driver that is most familiar with each core cell that comprises said one of said plurality of routes. - View Dependent Claims (9)
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Specification