Unlock the Sharing Economy: The Case of the Parking Sector for Recurrent Commuting Trips

This study examines the pricing strategy of a parking sharing platform that rents the daytime-usage rights of private parking spaces from parking owners and sells them to parking users. In an urban area with both shared parking and curbside parking, a choice equilibrium model is proposed to predict the number of shared parking users under any given pricing strategy of the platform. We analytically analyze how the pricing strategy of the platform (price charged on users and rent paid to parking owners or sharers) would affect the parking choice equilibrium and several system efficiency metrics. It is shown that the platform is profitable when some parking owners have a relatively small inconvenience cost from sharing their spaces, but its profit is always negative at minimum social cost. Numerical studies are conducted to illustrate the analytical results and provide further understanding.

A Monotone Approximate Dynamic Programming Approach for the Stochastic Scheduling, Allocation, and Inventory Replenishment Problem: Applications to Drone and Electric Vehicle Battery Swap Stations

There is a growing interest in using electric vehicles (EVs) and drones for many applications. However, battery-oriented issues, including range anxiety and battery degradation, impede adoption. Battery swap stations are one alternative to reduce these concerns that allow the swap of depleted for full batteries in minutes. We consider the problem of deriving actions at a battery swap station when explicitly considering the uncertain arrival of swap demand, battery degradation, and replacement. We model the operations at a battery swap station using a finite horizon Markov decision process model for the stochastic scheduling, allocation, and inventory replenishment problem (SAIRP), which determines when and how many batteries are charged, discharged, and replaced over time. We present theoretical proofs for the monotonicity of the value function and monotone structure of an optimal policy for special SAIRP cases. Because of the curses of dimensionality, we develop a new monotone approximate dynamic programming (ADP) method, which intelligently initializes a value function approximation using regression. In computational tests, we demonstrate the superior performance of the new regression-based monotone ADP method compared with exact methods and other monotone ADP methods. Furthermore, with the tests, we deduce policy insights for drone swap stations.

The Flexible Scheduled Service Network Design Problem

The scheduled service network design problem (SSNDP) can support planning the transportation operations of consolidation carriers given shipment-level service commitments regarding available and due times. These available and due times impact transportation costs by constraining potential consolidation opportunities. However, such available and due times may be changed, either because of negotiations with customers or redesigned internal operations to increase shipment consolidation and reduce transportation costs. As changing these times can lead to customer service and operational issues, we presume a carrier seeks to do so for a limited number of shipments. We propose a new variant of the SSNDP, the flexible scheduled service network design problem, that identifies the shipments for which these times should be changed to minimize total transportation and handling costs. We present a solution approach for this problem that outperforms a commercial optimization solver on instances derived from the operations of a U.S. less-than-truckload freight transportation carrier. With an extensive computational study, we study the savings potential of leveraging flexibility and the operational settings that are fertile ground for doing so.

The Electric Vehicle Routing Problem with Capacitated Charging Stations

Electric vehicle routing problems (E-VRPs) deal with routing a fleet of electric vehicles (EVs) to serve a set of customers while minimizing an operational criterion, for example, cost or time. The feasibility of the routes is constrained by the autonomy of the EVs, which may be recharged along the route. Much of the E-VRP research neglects the capacity of charging stations (CSs) and thus implicitly assumes that an unlimited number of EVs can be simultaneously charged at a CS. In this paper, we model and solve E-VRPs considering these capacity restrictions. In particular, we study an E-VRP with nonlinear charging functions, multiple charging technologies, en route charging, and variable charging quantities while explicitly accounting for the number of chargers available at privately managed CSs. We refer to this problem as the E-VRP with nonlinear charging functions and capacitated stations (E-VRP-NL-C). We introduce a continuous-time model formulation for the problem. We then introduce an algorithmic framework that iterates between two main components: (1) the route generator, which uses an iterated local search algorithm to build a pool of high-quality routes, and (2) the solution assembler, which applies a branch-and-cut algorithm to combine a subset of routes from the pool into a solution satisfying the capacity constraints. We compare four assembly strategies on a set of instances. We show that our algorithm effectively deals with the E-VRP-NL-C. Furthermore, considering the uncapacitated version of the E-VRP-NL-C, our solution method identifies new best-known solutions for 80 of 120 instances.

Impacts of Metering-Based Dynamic Priority Schemes

Several works published over the last two decades have shown for a stylized set-up with homogeneous users that metering-based priority (MBP) schemes may generate Pareto improving departure time adjustments similar to those induced by congestion pricing, but without any financial transaction. We investigate whether MBP (i) still generates significant savings and (ii) remains Pareto-improving, with various sources of heterogeneity (in schedule flexibility, desired arrival time, and capacity usage). We consider two types of schemes: one where the priority status is allocated randomly (R-MBP) and another (HOV-MBP), which only prioritizes users with small capacity usage (e.g., carpoolers). We find that the relative total cost savings of R-MBP decrease with heterogeneity in flexibility, but may increase with heterogeneity in desired arrival time. It fails however to be Pareto-improving, as nonprioritized users are almost systematically worse-off. HOV-MBP circumvents this issue by generating an ordering effect and a modal shift, which both contribute to a better distribution of benefits among users. Under favorable circumstances, they may even restore a Pareto improvement. Overall, MBP appears as a realistic way to alleviate congestion, scoring well both in terms of efficiency and social acceptability.

Predictive and Prescriptive Analytics Toward Passenger-Centric Ground Delay Programs

Ground delay programs (GDPs) comprise the main interventions to optimize flight operations in congested air traffic networks. The core GDP objective is to minimize flight delays, but this may not result in optimal outcomes for passengers—especially with connecting itineraries. This paper proposes a novel passenger-centric optimization approach to GDPs by balancing flight and passenger delays in large-scale networks. For tractability, we decompose the problem using a rolling procedure, enabling the model’s implementation in manageable runtimes. Computational results based on real-world data suggest that our modeling and computational framework can reduce passenger delays significantly at small increases in flight delay costs through two main mechanisms: (i) delay allocation (delaying versus prioritizing flights) and (ii) delay introduction (holding flights to avoid passenger misconnections). In practice, however, passenger itineraries are unknown to air traffic managers; accordingly, we propose statistical learning models to predict passenger itineraries and optimize GDP operations accordingly. Results show that the proposed passenger-centric approach is highly robust to imperfect knowledge of passenger itineraries and can provide significant benefits even in the current decentralized environment based on collaborative decision making.

Vehicle Routing with Stochastic Supply of Crowd Vehicles and Time Windows

The growth of e-commerce has increased demand for last-mile deliveries, increasing the level of congestion in the existing transportation infrastructure in urban areas. Crowdsourcing deliveries can provide the additional capacity needed to meet the growing demand in a cost-effective way. We introduce a setting where a crowd-shipping platform sells heterogeneous products of different sizes from a central depot. Items sold vary from groceries to electronics. Some items must be delivered within a time window, whereas others need a customer signature. Furthermore, customer presence is not guaranteed, and some deliveries may need to be returned to the depot. Delivery requests are fulfilled by a fleet of professional drivers and a pool of crowd drivers. We present a crowd-shipping platform that standardizes crowd drivers’ capacities and compensates them to return undelivered packages back to the depot. We formulate a two-stage stochastic model, and we propose a branch and price algorithm to solve the problem exactly and a column generation heuristic to solve larger problems quickly. We further develop an analytical method to calculate upper bounds on the supply of vehicles and an innovative cohesive pricing problem to generate columns for the pool of crowd drivers. Computational experiments are carried out on modified Solomon instances with a pool of 100 crowd vehicles. The branch and price algorithm is able to solve instances of up to 100 customers. We show that the value of the stochastic solution can be as high as 18% when compared with the solution obtained from a deterministic simplification of the model. Significant cost reductions of up to 28% are achieved by implementing crowd drivers with low compensations or higher capacities. Finally, we evaluate what happens when crowd drivers are given the autonomy to select routes based on rational and irrational behavior. There is no cost increase when crowd drivers are rational and select routes that have a higher compensation first. However, when crowd drivers are irrational and select routes randomly, the cost can increase up to 4.2% for some instances.

Central Authority–Controlled Air Traffic Flow Management: An Optimization Approach

Despite various planning efforts, airspace capacity can sometimes be exceeded, typically because of disruptive events. Air traffic flow management (ATFM) is the process of managing flights in this situation. In this paper, we present an ATFM model that accounts for different rerouting options (path rerouting and diversion) and preexisting en route flights. The model proposes having a central authority to control all decisions, which is then compared with current practice. We also consider interflight and interairline fairness measures in the network. We use an exact approach to solve small- to medium-sized instances, and we propose a modified fix-and-relax heuristic to solve large-sized instances. Allowing a central authority to control all decisions increases network efficiency compared with the case where the ATFM authority and airlines control decisions independently. Our experiments show that including different rerouting options in ATFM can help reduce delays by up to 8% and cancellations by up to 23%. Moreover, ground delay cost has much more impact on network decisions than air delay cost, and network decisions are insensitive to changes in diversion cost. Furthermore, the analysis of the tradeoff between total network cost and overtaking cost shows that adding costs for overtaking can significantly improve fairness at only a small increase in total system cost. A balanced total cost per flight among airlines can be achieved at a small increase in the network cost (0.2%–3.0%) when imposing airline fairness. In conclusion, the comprehensiveness of the model makes it useful for analyzing a wide range of alternatives for efficient ATFM.

Supervised Learning for Arrival Time Estimations in Restaurant Meal Delivery

Restaurant meal delivery companies have begun to provide customers with meal arrival time estimations to inform the customers’ selection. Accurate estimations increase customer experience, whereas inaccurate estimations may lead to dissatisfaction. Estimating arrival times is a challenging prediction problem because of uncertainty in both delivery and meal preparation process. To account for both processes, we present an offline and online-offline estimation approaches. Our offline method uses supervised learning to map state features directly to expected arrival times. Our online-offline method pairs online simulations with an offline approximation of the delivery vehicles’ routing policy, again achieved via supervised learning. Our computational study shows that both methods perform comparably to a full near-optimal online simulation at a fraction of the computational time. We present an extensive analysis on how arrival time estimation changes the experience for customers, restaurants, and the platform. Our results indicate that accurate arrival times not only raise service perception but also improve the overall delivery system by guiding customer selections, effectively resulting in faster delivery and fresher food.

A Branch-Price-and-Cut Algorithm for the Two-Echelon Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows

In this paper, we propose an exact branch-price-and-cut (BPC) algorithm for the two-echelon vehicle routing problem with time windows. This problem arises in city logistics when high-capacity and low-capacity vehicles are used to transport items from depots to satellites (first echelon) and from satellites to customers (second echelon), respectively. The aim is to determine a set of least-cost first- and second-echelon routes such that the load on the routes respect the capacity of the vehicles, each second-echelon route is supplied by exactly one first-echelon route, and each customer is visited by exactly one second-echelon route within its time window. We model the problem with a route-based formulation where first-echelon routes are enumerated a priori, and second-echelon routes are generated using column generation. The problem is solved using BPC. To generate second-echelon routes, one pricing problem per satellite is solved using a labeling algorithm which keeps track of the first-echelon route associated with each (partial) second-echelon route considered. Furthermore, to speed up the solution process, we introduce effective deep dual-optimal inequalities and apply known valid inequalities. We perform extensive computational experiments on benchmark instances and show that our method outperforms a state-of-the-art algorithm. We also conduct sensitivity analyses on the different components of our algorithm and derive managerial insights related to the structure of the first-echelon routes.