Improved Intermodal Freight Chassis Routing via Use of Tracking Technology and Optimization: A Case Study

In the United States of America a host of new technologies are being developed to improve the security of intermodal freight shipments. In terms of security, the benefits of these technologies are largely realized by the public sector, it is however the private industry that bears the cost of deployment. Hence the benefit of these technologies to the private sector in terms of freight efficiency must also be examined. In addition to providing a brief overview of intermodal freight operations in America, this presentation will highlight the evaluation results from a study of a GPS and sensor based device for tracking the location and status of an intermodal freight chassis. The chassis tracking technology was deployed on a fleet of 54 chassis operating in a single centrally managed chassis pool in the North Eastern United States. The main focus of this study is the impact of the new technology generated real-time information streams on chassis fleet operations. An optimization based mixed integer program was tailored to model chassis routing under the assumption of greater fleet visibility. Using the data from the test fleet, the model was run to simulate varying planning horizons. The results demonstrate that use of optimization in conjunction with real-time information could yield significant savings in optimized bare miles traveled over the miles traveled in actuality.More information: contact nzerhane@rsm.nl