Truck driver scheduling with interdependent routes and working time constraints

Abstract

In transportation and logistic applications, scheduling hours of service for multiple, interdependent truck drivers to ensure compliance with regulatory resting requirements and service time windows is an extremely challenging task. Models previously designed to schedule truck drivers with interdependent routes have been capable of capturing such scenarios. However, until now, there has been no efficient way to schedule drivers when facing multiple types of interdependency constraints. To overcome this challenge, we introduce properties of truck driver schedules under working time constraints for single-day journeys. A two-stage algorithm exploits these properties to quickly produce schedules for a large number of truck routes. The algorithm minimizes the latest completion time of multiple truck schedules while ensuring that all drivers can complete their route with sufficient recovery periods and within their working hours. Computational experiments demonstrate the superiority of the approach compared to both existing algorithms and a mathematical programming approach. • Identification of properties of truck driver schedules. • Backtracking algorithm employing the properties. • Multiple types of route interdependencies can be tackled. • The proposed algorithm outperforms all pre-existing methods.