Long-distance Road Transport Research Articles

Multi-Trip Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows and Resource Synchronization on Heterogeneous Facilities

Inspired by long-distance road transport in industrial logistics in China, this paper studies a simultaneous loading scheduling and vehicle routing problem over a multi-workday planning horizon. Industrial cargo often requires specialized facilities, and these facilities vary in performance and quantity and are subject to available time constraints. Consequently, achieving coordinated optimization of vehicle routing and loading scheduling becomes a significant challenge in practice. We describe the studied problem as a multi-trip vehicle routing problem with time windows and resource synchronization on heterogeneous facilities. First, we develop a mixed integer programming model in a multi-workday setting to minimize the total travel distance and the number of vehicles. Moreover, a three-phase heuristic approach is developed. An initial solution is constructed using a sequential strategy in the first phase, and then an adaptive large neighbourhood search and a post-optimization procedure based on ejection chains are, respectively, designed to optimize the two hierarchical objective functions. Finally, extensive computational experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Specifically, the research results indicate that in long-distance road transport in industrial scenarios, expanding the planning horizon from a single workday to a multi-workday period could significantly reduce logistics operational costs and improve service quality.

Analysis of Exhaust Emissions from Heavy-Duty Vehicles on Different Applications

Emissions from the road transport sector are a major contributor to the climate change. Commonly used heavy vehicles powered by diesel engines emit toxic and harmful compounds that adversely affect the environment. For this reason, increasingly newer Euro emission standards are being introduced. Therefore, the emission performance of heavy-duty vehicles used in the transportation processes of diverse loads was investigated. The first research object was a set of vehicles equipped with a crane used for loading and unloading timber. The measurements were carried out in a specially designed research test reflecting the way the vehicle is used. It consisted of the drive to the loading site, the transport of timber to the destination and the processes of loading and unloading timber. The test route included driving on both unpaved forest roads and asphalt roads. The second research object was a set of vehicles used in long-distance road transport. The research route characterizing the traffic of vehicles from the cited group was selected here. There were three stages of the route–urban, extra-urban and highway. The whole trip was carried out with a load of 24,800 kg. The testing equipment consisted of SEMTECH DS and AVL Micro Soot Sensor devices belonging to the PEMS (Portable Emission Measurement System) group. Based on the obtained results, the influence of the operating conditions on the exhaust emissions and fuel consumption was determined.

Future Power Train Solutions for Long-Haul Trucks

Achieving the CO2 reduction targets for 2050 requires extensive measures being undertaken in all sectors. In contrast to energy generation, the transport sector has not yet been able to achieve a substantive reduction in CO2 emissions. Measures for the ever more pressing reduction in CO2 emissions from transportation include the increased use of electric vehicles powered by batteries or fuel cells. The use of fuel cells requires the production of hydrogen and the establishment of a corresponding hydrogen production system and associated infrastructure. Synthetic fuels made using carbon dioxide and sustainably-produced hydrogen can be used in the existing infrastructure and will reach the extant vehicle fleet in the medium term. All three options require a major expansion of the generation capacities for renewable electricity. Moreover, various options for road freight transport with light duty vehicles (LDVs) and heavy duty vehicles (HDVs) are analyzed and compared. In addition to efficiency throughout the entire value chain, well-to-wheel efficiency and also other aspects play an important role in this comparison. These include: (a) the possibility of large-scale energy storage in the sense of so-called ‘sector coupling’, which is offered only by hydrogen and synthetic energy sources; (b) the use of the existing fueling station infrastructure and the applicability of the new technology on the existing fleet; (c) fulfilling the power and range requirements of the long-distance road transport.

South Africa’s freight rail reform: A demand-driven perspective

During the 20th century, freight transport in South Africa was employed to attain politicoeconomic ideals, resulting in the overprotection of rail and overregulation of road transport. Increasing industry pressure, combined with the international deregulation trend, led to deregulation in 1988. Myopia resulted in a rail investment hiatus and exponential growth in high-value, long-distance road transport, causing excessive logistics and externality costs for the country. The aim of this study was to propose a freight rail reform agenda based on, (1) lessons from past freight transport policy efforts and (2) the results of freight transport market segmentation driven by models developed over the past two decades. For the study, freight flows were modelled by disaggregating the national input–output model into 372 origin–destination pairs and 71 commodity groups, followed by distance decay gravitymodelling. Logistics costs were calculated by relating commodity-level freight flows to the costs of fulfilling associated logistical functions. The standard management approach of founding strategy development on market-driven segmentation provides a neutral input to steer rail reform discussions in South Africa. Market segmentation points to a dualistic rail reform agenda, enabling both a profit-driven core and a development-driven branch line network. Freight flow insights are steering the policy reform debate towards long-term freight strategy development and optimal freight logistics network design.

Simultaneous Vehicle and Crew Routing and Scheduling for Partial- and Full-Load Long-Distance Road Transport

AbstractThis paper studies a simultaneous vehicle and crew routing and scheduling problem arising in long-distance road transport in Europe: Pickup-and-delivery requests have to be fulfilled over a multi-period planning horizon by a heterogeneous fleet of trucks and drivers. Typically, in the vehicle routing literature, a fixed assignment of a driver to a truck is assumed. In our approach, we abandon this assumption and allow truck/driver changes at geographically dispersed relay stations. This offers greater planning flexibility and allows a better utilization of trucks, but also creates intricate interdependencies between trucks and drivers and requires the synchronization of their routes. A solution heuristic based on a two-stage decomposition of the problem is developed, taking into account European Union social legislation for drivers, and computational experiments using real-world data provided by a major German forwarder are presented and analyzed. The obtained results suggest that for the vehicle and driver cost structure prevalent in Western Europe and for transport requests that are not systematically acquired to complement one another, no cost savings are possible through simultaneous vehicle and crew routing and scheduling, although no formal proof of this fact is possible.

Motorways of the sea policy in Europe

This paper explores Motorways of the Sea (MoS) policy in Europe. The major objective of MoS policy is to shift freight from long-distance road transport to sea transport. The paper first analyses maritime and transport policies, and associated public financial support regulations concerning MoS at European Union (EU) level. Examples are provided of Member State funding schemes intended to help further develop MoS services. The paper discusses MoS as an economic concept, outlining the processes involved in securing funding for what are private transport infrastructure initiatives (i.e. MoS), unlike road and rail infrastructure which are for the most part provided and maintained by the public sector. The findings suggest there is a need to reconsider MoS initiatives and interventions in future in order to bring about sustainable and timely MoS solutions, to help overcome the challenge of road freight transport and to meet EU environmental commitments. As a consequence, a simpler and more realistic approach may be preferable to extend MoS more fully throughput the EU, one which is amenable (and understandable) to both users and service providers, and which also takes account of the ongoing disparities relating to public funding of transport infrastructure.

城市能源利用碳足迹分析——以厦门市为例

Because of increasing concern about global climate change,there has been a growing research interest in carbon footprint analysis recent years.Carbon footprint analysis on urban energy use takes both direct carbon emissions and indirect emissions into account,so it has great significance for the in-depth analysis on nature process of carbon emissions and scientific formulation on carbon reduction plan.Taking Xiamen as a study area,the hybrid analysis method of carbon footprint was used to access the carbon footprint on the energy use of Xiamen city in 2009.Besides the direct carbon emissions from the urban energy end-use in traditional research,the indirect carbon emissions from the cross-boundary traffic and the embodied energy of key urban materials were also included.The direct emissions include emissions from direct energy use in industrial sector,commercial sector,household sector,transport sector and so on,which often called scope 1 by WRI/WBCSD.The direct emissions also include emissions due to electricity and steam purchases for the sector in the city,often called scope 2 emissions.And indirect carbon emissions,which called scope 3,incorporate the surface,sailing and airline travel′s emissions across cities and the embodied energy of key urban materials: food,water,fuel,and concrete.Research result showed that:(1) Direct carbon emissions from the energy use on the sectors inside the city boundary including industry,transport,commerce and so on,namely scope 1 and scope 2,only take up 64% of the total city carbon footprint.However,the indirect emissions from the cross-boundary traffic and embodied energy of key urban materials account for 36%,which has usually been ignored as scope 3.(2) In the direct emissions,the carbon emissions of industry contributed the largest share,which counts for 55%.And the emissions from the chemical industry account for 25% of the whole industry sector.(3) In the indirect emissions,the shares of emissions from cross-boundary traffic and embodied energy of key urban materials were 27% and 73% respectively.The carbon emissions of long-distance road transport take the largest proportion of cross-boundary traffic,which accounted for 38%.And the embodied energy emissions from the fuel were the most important part of embodied energy emissions,accounting for 51% of embodied emissions.(4) From the perspective of per capital carbon footprint,the per capital direct carbon emissions of Xiamen and Denver were 5.74 t CO2e/cap and 18.9 t CO2e/cap respectively.And the per capital carbon footprint of Xiamen and Denver,including direct and indirect emissions caused by the energy use,were 9.01 t CO2e/cap and 25.3 t CO2e/cap.In the total carbon footprint by Xiamen and Denver,the emissions from the cross-boundary transport all took up 10%,and the emissions caused by embodied energy of key urban materials were 26% and 15% respectively.The embodied emissions by Xiamen were relatively higher than Denver because the urbanization and industrialization consumed more materials in Xiamen.Comparing the per capital carbon emission excluding embodied emissions with typical cities in the worldwide,Denver took the first place with 21.5 t CO2e/cap,and Los Angeles,New York City,London,Bangkok,Cape Town and big city like Shanghai,Tianjin and Beijing in China were more than 10 t CO2e/cap averagely.That of Xiamen was 6.63 t CO2e/cap,which was far less than most cities.

The effects of different environmental conditions on thermoregulation and clinical and hematological variables in long-distance road-transported calves1

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of long-distance road transport (19 h, from Poland to Italy) during 2 seasons (summer vs. winter) on clinical and hematological variables in calves. The environmental temperature range that could compromise the thermoregulation system (thermal stress) of the calves was tested. For the 7 Holstein calves in each transport, the BW and rectal temperature (RT) were measured, and blood samples were collected at the farm of origin, before loading at the transit center (T2), after unloading at the farm of destination (T3), and 1, 2, 3, and 4 d after arrival. The body temperature (BT) and heart rate (HR) were continuously monitored from T2 to T3. The data were statistically analyzed according to a mixed model that considered the fixed effects of transport (repeated measurements), season of journey, and their interaction. Within the observed temperature-humidity index (THI) range (30 to 80), effective thermoregulation allowed the calves to maintain their BT with small physiologic changes to prevent thermal stress, particularly in the summer. With no seasonal differences, the HR was greater at loading than unloading (120 vs. 115 beats per min; P = 0.012). As for the transport effect, the BW was less (P < 0.001) after unloading, and the RT was greater (P = 0.004). This effect was more marked in summer. The hematological variables indicated a moderate effect of transport on the hydration condition, reactive and muscular systems, and metabolism, although hematocrit (P = 0.004), erythrocytes, cortisol, NEFA, β-hydroxybutyrate, lactate, creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, and aspartate aminotransferase activity (P < 0.001), and total protein (P = 0.007) were greater after unloading. This was confirmed by a moderate decrease in total leukocytes (P = 0.031) and glucose concentration (P = 0.002). The changes in the clinical variables were similar for both seasons even though in the summer, hematocrit (P < 0.001), urea (P = 0.008), and total protein (P = 0.010) increased and glucose concentration (P = 0.038) decreased. In conclusion, the data did not show a pronounced effect attributable to the season of the journey. Long-distance road transport leads to notable changes in clinical and hematological variables at the end of the journey. However, these variables remained within their physiological ranges and returned to basal values within a few days after the journey.

Changes in cortisol release and heart rate variability in sport horses during long-distance road transport

It is widely accepted that transport is stressful for horses, but only a few studies are available involving horses that are transported regularly and are accustomed to transport. We determined salivary cortisol immunoreactivity (IR), fecal cortisol metabolites, beat-to-beat (RR) interval, and heart rate variability (HRV) in transport-experienced horses (N = 7) in response to a 2-d outbound road transport over 1370 km and 2-d return transport 8 d later. Salivary cortisol IR was low until 60 min before transport but had increased ( P < 0.05) 30 min before loading. Transport caused a further marked increase ( P < 0.001), but the response tended to decrease with each day of transport. Concentrations of fecal cortisol metabolites increased on the second day of both outbound and return transports and reached a maximum the following day ( P < 0.001). During the first 90 min on Day 1 of outbound transport, mean RR interval decreased ( P < 0.001). Standard deviations of RR interval (SDRR) decreased transiently ( P < 0.01). The root mean square of successive RR differences (RMSSD) decreased at the beginning of the outbound and return transports ( P < 0.01), reflecting reduced parasympathetic tone. On the first day of both outbound and return transports, a transient rise in geometric HRV variable standard deviation 2 (SD2) occurred ( P < 0.01), indicating increased sympathetic activity. In conclusion, transport of experienced horses leads to increased cortisol release and changes in heart rate and HRV, which is indicative of stress. The degree of these changes tended to be most pronounced on the first day of both outbound and return transport.

Predictors of Psychostimulant Use by Long-Distance Truck Drivers

Two national cross-sectional surveys of fatigue and its effects in long-distance road transport in Australia showed that stimulant use was a common feature of this industry. Between one in five and one in three drivers reported using stimulants at least sometimes, and a significant proportion reported stimulant use as a most helpful fatigue management strategy. This study reanalyzed the surveys with the aim of identifying predictors of stimulant drug use by drivers. The surveys were administered in 1991 (n = 970) and 1998 (n = 1,007) by interview and self-administration. Logistic regression analysis conducted separately for each survey showed that stimulant drug use was twice as likely for drivers who had the greatest problem in managing fatigue and was two to three times more likely for drivers paid on a payment-by-results or contingency-payment basis. Younger, less experienced drivers were also more likely to take drugs. This analysis demonstrates the involvement of external factors, especially productivity-based payment systems, in stimulant drug use by truck drivers; findings were confirmed in two separate surveys conducted 7 years apart. Results highlight the important role of economic and organizational factors in occupational health and safety problems.

Effect of Long-distance Road Transport on Thyroid and Adrenal Function and Haematocrit Values in Limousin Cattle: Influence of Body Weight Decrease

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of long-distance road transport as a relevant stressor on total and free iodothyronines, cortisol levels and haematocrit values in 10 male Limousin cattle. Serum T3,T4,fT3,fT4 and cortisol concentrations were analysed by immunoenzymatic assays. Serum cortisol levels and haematocrit modifications were also evaluated on the basis of percentage body weight decrease. The results showed a general increase of total and free iodothyronines and cortisol levels after short-and long-distance road transport and a decrease 15 days after transport, as compared to basal values. Significant positive correlations between T3 and T4, between T3 and fT3, and between T4 and fT4 were found. These results suggest that transport stress induces an increase in the activity of thyroid and adrenal function in Limousin cattle that is evident after even a short-distance road transport and continues to increase after long-distance transport.

Effects of a maximum permissible journey time (31 h) on physiological responses of fleeced and shorn sheep to transport, with observations on behaviour during a short (1 h) rest-stop

AbstractConcern for the welfare of export lambs during long-distance road transport has prompted much research and a recommended change in procedure. The latter envisages an absolute maximum journey time of 31 h and includes a rest-stop (minimum duration 1 h) for feeding and watering. In the present experiment, the physiological and behavioural responses to this new protocol have been investigated in fleeced and shorn lambs (no. = 10 per group) provided with venous catheters and heart rate monitors. The two groups were loaded on a vehicle into separate adjacent pens and driven for 14 h; then unloaded into a lairage, where their behaviour was recorded. After 1 h they were reloaded and driven for a further 15·5 h, finally arriving at a slaughterhouse where carcass condition was evaluated. Blood samples collected at 30- or 60-min intervals by experimenters travelling with the animals were analysed to determine haematocrit, plasma osmolality, plasma concentrations of glucose, creatinine phosphokinase (CPK), and the stress-responsive hormones, cortisol, prolactin, adrenaline and noradrenaline. The results showed that haematocrit increased after loading although the general trend during transport, as with osmolality, was a decline (P &lt; 0·05). No significant changes in plasma glucose were detected but CPK increased in fleeced lambs after loading (P &lt; 0·05). Cortisol release was stimulated by loading, especially in fleeced sheep (P &lt; 0·001) but returned to home pen values within 6 h; heart rates changed in a similar manner. Transport did not markedly affect prolactin release although concentrations were consistently greater in fleeced sheep (P &lt; 0·001). Noradrenaline, however, tended to be higher in shorn animals (P &lt; 0·05). In lairage, both groups readily consumed hay, and especially concentrates, but the shorn lambs spent more time eating (P &lt; 0·001). None of the shorn sheep, and only a few fleeced animals, drank water. There was no evidence for differences in weight loss between the two groups during the experiment and carcass quality at slaughter was within the normal expected range. The implications of these, and other related studies, for future transport policy are discussed, with particular reference to rest-stop duration and handling procedures.

Work and rest in the long-distance road transport industry in Australia

Abstract To date management of fatigue in professional drivers has largely focused on strategies that limit the amount of time spent on the job. These approaches have, however, not taken into account the well-documented effect of time of day. Consequently, the likely impact of the pattern and timing of work and rest has received little attention. The results revealed that the group of drivers who did the shortest trips and worked the shortest weekly hours were the lowest reporters of fatigue, although longer hours were not always associated with the highest reporting of fatigue. In contrast, the shortest working hours were associated with earliest onset of fatigue. For all drivers, the influence of circadian rhythms was evident in the occurrence of fatigue, with better management of the problem evident among drivers who were able to arrange the timing of rest to more closely coincide with periods of fatigue. Thus, time of day appeared to be a more important influence in determining effective rest than did...