AN DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM TO LONG HAUL FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION BY MEANS OF ANT COLONY OPTIMIZATION

Abstract

This paper presents an original tool to optimize

the long-distance freight transport by road

based on an original methodology for allocating

communication roads depending on the volume

of orders.

The goal this system consists of helping traffic

managers of transport companies to achieve the

optimal distribution in order to reduce operational

costs satisfying the service quality, optimizing the

route and the loading of vehicles and grouping

orders following proper load/unload procedures.

The system developed is an intuitive application

that enables a fast learning of the existing

functionalities adapting in a very versatile way to

any case study.

An algorithm based on the metaheuristic, ant

colony optimization, is used to solve the problem

taking into account the following specific

characteristics: there is a maximum driving time

per day, the vehicle capacity is limited, there

are compatibility constraint of different types

of goods in the same vehicle, customers have

time constraints to pickup/deliver goods and the

procedure of loading/unloading is LIFO (Last Input

First Output).

The efficiency of the algorithm has been proved

using data from real problems. The basis of our

computational experiments is the historical data

of an important freight transport company.