Truck Movements Research Articles

Asbestos Fibre and Mineral Counts from Filtered Dust Collected in Human Settlements Asbestos Mine Dumps in Mpumalanga Province, Republic of South Africa

Dust generation sources come from mining sites including mine dumps, crushing, hauling, grinding and offloading of waste material from open pit and underground operation and non-operations, movement of trucks on unpaved roads, etc. Many mine dumps in South Africa are not rehabilitated due to the possibility of re-mining in the case of asbestos dumps or have been abandoned by previous owners for different reasons. Some of the reasons for abandonment include bankruptcy, ineffective enforcement, lack of financial assurance, minimal penalties for non-compliance and commodities like gold, asbestos and coal are affected. Historically, only long asbestos fibres were used for manufacturing purpose. While short fibres were unwanted

A multivariate freezing-thawing depth prediction model for spring load restriction

Road damages induced by heavily loaded truck traffic during the spring thaw are a major road distress in cold regions. To minimize these damages, Spring Load Restriction (SLR) is widely applied in the U.S., Canada, and other countries during the early thawing season by controlling the movement of freight-carrying trucks and heavy equipment travel until the thawing ends. Most SLR policies rely on the Freezing Depth (FD) and Thawing Depth (TD), especially the latter one. Therefore, accurate predictions of FD and TD are important to prevent both the extensive damage to the pavement due to the late placement or early removal of SLR and the economic loss of road users due to an unnecessarily long SLR period. Here, we propose a new multivariate model for predicting FD and TD in support of SLR decision-making. The model gives a curving surface of FD and TD in a 3-dimensional space, instead of 2-dimensional in traditional methods, by considering both the freezing and thawing indices in the entire freeze-thaw cycle. For model evaluations, yearly field data measured at five typical sites from 104 sites in Michigan were adopted. The evaluation results showed that the proposed model is accurate in predicting FD and TD for most sites. Compared to the previous TD predictions in the existing study, the TD predictions with the proposed model have been significantly improved. In addition, this study provides field data that have not been reported earlier in the literature and that can be used for validating other prediction models. The reported work is ready for practice for roadways in cold regions to support SLR decision-making.

Conflict-free routing of multi-stop warehouse trucks

The recent interest in greater vehicular autonomy for factory and warehouse automation has stimulated research in conflict-free routing: a challenging network routing problem in which vehicles may not pass each other. Motivated by a real-world case study, we consider one such application: truck movements in a tightly constrained warehouse. We propose an extension of an existing conflict-free routing algorithm to consider multiple stopping points per route. A high level metaheuristic is applied to determine the route construction and assignment of vehicles to routes.

Collisions on local roads: model development and policy level scenario analysis

The problem of collisions on local roads has received little specific attention despite the considerable number of such collisions that occur each year. First part of this study identifies the factors that influence local road collision frequency at traffic analysis zone (TAZ) level with a particular focus on the planning and policy related variables. The City of Calgary is used as a case study, where we focus on the impacts of land use, demographic characteristics, and travel characteristics. We also investigate the effects of some key transportation planning parameters for which there have been very limited studies, including the number of personal and commercial trips and the employment numbers in various categories. This study examines the impact of the number of trips made by automobile versus more sustainable transport modes like transit, walking, and biking for personal travel. It also examines the impact of commercial truck movement on the number of collisions on local roads in a TAZ. The impact of transit-oriented development zone initiatives is explored, as is the relationship between the predominant land use type (e.g., residential, commercial, industrial) and the number of collisions on local roads. In the second part, collision prediction models were linked with regional transportation model (RTM), which is calibrated and modeled in EMME. Since the choice of transportation mode is explicitly modeled through utility functions in the RTM, the proposed approach will allow us to do scenario analysis for planning and policy level issues proactively such as impact on local collisions due to change in fuel price, parking cost, transit headway, and transit fare. Results showed that property damage only (PDO) and fatal and injury (FI) collisions decreased by 13% and 6%, respectively, when fuel price was doubled. It was also observed that PDO and FI collisions decreased by 8% and 5%, respectively, when parking cost was doubled. PDO and FI collisions decreased by 7% and 4%, respectively, when transit headway was reduced to half. When transit fare was reduced to half, PDO and FI collisions decreased by 5% and 2%, respectively. PDO and FI collisions decreased by 10% and 5%, respectively, when transit fare was set to zero. These scenario analyses demonstrate how the impact of transportation planning or policy level issues on the collision count on local roads can be incorporated in our proposed model.

Developing an agent-based model to simulate the beef cattle production and transportation in southwest Kansas

Modern beef cattle production in the U.S. is a highly specialized system that spans from cow–calf ranches, to stockers, to feedlots, to packers. The cattle production system is particularly interdependent with the transportation system, as cattle and feed need to be moved through production phases. Although this interdependence enables the economic functioning of the interdependent system, it also brings vulnerabilities to the system amplifying disease spreading and natural disaster consequences. Taking southwest Kansas as a study area, we explicitly model the beef cattle industry and the transportation industry as two independent but interconnected industries through agent-based modeling. Since cattle and truck movement data are scarce due to privacy concerns, we first generate cattle and truck movement data among production locations under normal operating conditions. We then assess the system robustness by constructing hypothetical disruptions in the cattle industry and in the transportation industry. The simulation results show that the interdependent system is robust to random failures but vulnerable to the targeted shutdown of cattle premises or truck premises. In addition, we observe that disruptions in the trucks serving packers have the worst impact on cattle production, as compared to other transportation disruptions. In disaster preparations, policymakers and system designers need to consider vulnerabilities caused by the interdependent infrastructure and pay particular attention to one of its critical components, meat packers.

Testing trajectory of road trains with program complexes

The article provides information about using software for determination off tracking and trajectory movement of trucks. It describes experiment of determination of trajectory movement of trucks, using GPS system, to assess the compliance of similar models of the movement of road trains in computer-aided road design systems. Experimental study was conducted using truck KAMAZ 54115 and semi-trailer M 9397 in real road conditions. There are presented and compared results of the study of movement trajectories of road trains with results obtained of the Auto TURN software package application. Discrepancy between the curves is explained. As the difference in AutoTURN data in comparison with experimental values does not exceed 4.07 %, which, given the very similar nature of the curves, can be considered valid. As a conclusion the use of AutoTURN software package is validated for determining dynamic dimension of cars and for modelling trajectory of movement, not only for road trains, but also for all types of vehicles in the area of their design.

Fire truck relocation during major incidents

AbstractThe effectiveness of a fire department is largely determined by its ability to respond to incidents in a timely manner. To do so, fire departments typically have fire stations spread evenly across the region, and dispatch the closest truck(s) whenever a new incident occurs. However, large gaps in coverage may arise in the case of a major incident that requires many nearby fire trucks over a long period of time, substantially increasing response times for emergencies that occur subsequently. We propose a heuristic for relocating idle trucks during a major incident in order to retain good coverage. This is done by solving a mathematical program that takes into account the location of the available fire trucks and the historic spatial distribution of incidents. This heuristic allows the user to balance the coverage and the number of truck movements. Using extensive simulation experiments we test the heuristic for the operations of the Fire Department of Amsterdam‐Amstelland, and compare it against three other benchmark strategies in a simulation fitted using 10 years of historical data. We demonstrate substantial improvement over the current relocation policy, and show that not relocating during major incidents may lead to a significant decrease in performance.

Study into conditions for the interaction between different types of transport at intermodal terminals

The study conducted into organization of the interaction among various types of transport at intermodal terminals found that it is necessary to improve the technological process of a terminal to achieve effective functioning of transshipment terminals. Specifically, it is necessary to provide basic requirements, such as continuity, rhythm, parallelism and sequenced-flow of all operations and maximum combination with the high quality of unconditional use. The study proved that achievement of appropriate conditions is possible when using the descriptive model of a two-port terminal. It operates due to the processes of self-synchronization of movement of automated platforms, which transport containers between a road and a railroad portal. The study established that we must solve the design problem of creation of perfect computer models for needs of organization of the interaction of various types of transport at intermodal terminals in a combination of descriptive model and analytical model. These models include software components and hardware components that provide conditions for implementation of the concept of self-synchronization movement of forklift trucks. Specifically, the study found that the self-timed control approach provides a greater degree of coordination in operation of a container terminal. That makes it possible to improve the parallelism of processes, that is, simultaneous implementation of events within a system.The study showed a possibility for the formalization of processes of self-synchronization by means of Petri nets. This mathematical apparatus is very convenient for modeling dynamic discrete systems and makes it possible to explore the sequential execution of all processes, which occur at an intermodal terminal. Based on the simulation, the study proved that an average container demurrage at a terminal diminishes, which makes it possible to increase processing capacity and to reduce unit costs for processing a container at a terminal.Thus, there is reason to state that it is quite possible to develop technologically complete seaport-railroad portal-automobile portal terminal structures in various configurations. The type of configuration depends on selected logistics routes for delivery of good. We should apply the method of organization of operation of a two-port terminal for this purpose.

The effect of cooperation among shipping lines on transport costs and pollutant emissions

This study explores the effect of cooperation among shipping lines on transport costs and pollutant emissions. The quantitative benefits of the cooperation were measured via a simulation-based model that (i) optimized inland empty container reuse and (ii) considered a two-dimensional capacity (weight and size) for vehicle types and demands. Inland empty container optimization was integrated with a dynamic vehicle allocation and routing problem with time-window constraints, while the two-dimensional capacity considered minimising total transport costs in a time-varying network with road segment usage constraints by truck type. The simulation model was used to evaluate the status quo and the cooperation scenarios by analysing two weeks of import and export container movements for the port of Brisbane (Australia). The major findings from the study are: (i) the cooperation among shipping companies avoids a significant number of unnecessary truck movements and of storage days for empty containers; (ii) the cooperation translates into truck-sharing and utilisation of larger trucks, which are more environmentally friendly and cost-efficient choices when compared to smaller trucks; (iii) the introduction of a decision support system provides solutions to the freight actors regarding optimal routing and vehicle allocation, based on real-world constraints and dynamics. Remarkably, the savings in the cooperation scenario are substantial, yielding a 40% reduction of fuel consumption and pollutant emissions.

Cross‐border freight movements in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Region, with insights from passive GPS data

AbstractThe Great Lakes and St. Lawrence binational region is one of the most significant concentrations of industrial production on earth and contains the most active corridors for goods movements in the Canada‐United States trade relationship. The history of industrial development in this region involves the exploitation of coal and iron ore for steel production, the development of the railroads and the expansion of commercial agriculture, and the growth of the automotive and other high value‐added manufacturing industries. Canadian and American industrial complexes became increasingly integrated with the support of trade agreements in the latter decades of the 20th century. Development of cross‐border supply chains led to massive international flows of intermediate goods. In this context, the performance of a few key border crossings is of critical economic importance. New information drawn from very large datasets of Global Positioning System records generated by cross‐border truck movements sheds new light on both the spatial patterns of cross‐border goods movement and the performance of border crossings.

Predictive gravity models of livestock mobility in Mauritania: The effects of supply, demand and cultural factors.

Animal movements are typically driven by areas of supply and demand for animal products and by the seasonality of production and demand. As animals can potentially spread infectious diseases, disease prevention can benefit from a better understanding of the factors influencing movements patterns in space and time. In Mauritania, an important cultural event, called the Tabaski (Aïd el Kebir) strongly affects timing and structure of movements, and due to the arid and semi-arid climatic conditions, the season can also influence movement patterns. In order to better characterize the animal movements patterns, a survey was carried out in 2014, and those data were analysed here using social network analysis (SNA) metrics and used to train predictive gravity models. More specifically, we aimed to contrast the movements structure by ruminant species, season (Tabaski vs. Non-Tabaski) and mode of transport (truck vs. foot). The networks differed according to the species, and to the season, with a changed proportion of truck vs. foot movements. The gravity models were able to predict the probability of a movement link between two locations with moderate to good accuracy (AUC ranging from 0.76 to 0.97), according to species, seasons, and mode of transport, but we failed to predict the traded volume of those trade links. The significant predictor variables of a movement link were the human and sheep population at the source and origin, and the distance separating the locations. Though some improvements would be needed to predict traded volumes and better account for the barriers to mobility, the results provide useful predictions to inform epidemiological models in space and time, and, upon external validation, could be useful to predict movements at a larger regional scale.

A GPS Data Processing Framework for Analysis of Drayage Truck Tours

A Clean Trucks Program (CTP) has been enacted at California’s San Pedro Bay Ports (SPBP) of Long Beach and Los Angeles, to help address major environmental issues associated with port operations. “Clean trucks” (meeting 2007 model year emission standards) that utilized public funds to replace older, polluting drayage trucks were required to be fitted with GPS units for compliance monitoring, with an expectation that freight truck movements could be investigated more precisely. Such implementation also served as a prototype of emerging smart freight mobility concepts, which are often heavily data-driven processes, but which should provide data and insights that are useful to both researchers and practitioners. Accordingly, this paper reports on research to develop a comprehensive framework for processing SPBP clean truck GPS data, to both interpret tour behavior of clean drayage trucks, and to prepare sufficient tour data for clean truck modeling at the SPBP. An important finding is that clean trucks at the SPBP have distinct tour characteristics. First, most completed a tour within one day, but one day of travel behavior is not necessarily representative of any other day. Second, the identified tour types contain repetitive trip patterns while other commercial trucks mostly tend to travel as circulative patterns. These insights into clean truck behavior at the SPBP potentially provide more accurate depictions of current conditions and better projections of future conditions for freight related improvement plans and models.

Achieving a smooth flow of fuel deliveries by truck to an urban biomass power plant in Helsinki, Finland – an agent-based simulation approach

ABSTRACT Power plants that use biomass for fuel can have heavy truck flow rates, especially during winter. From the viewpoint of power plant operations, it is important that this flow of trucks is smooth; a traffic jam can lead to a decrease in the efficiency of the plant or, at worst, to unwanted shutdowns. To study the effects of different logistics solutions on the truck flow in the reception area of a plant, an agent-based simulation model was created. The model mimics the movement of trucks at a fuel reception site. The case selected for this is a power plant, planned for construction in the Helsinki area of Finland. The model period was set as one month during winter time. The case studies the effects of a second weighing station, automatic sampling and the income flows of different truck types. The results show that a second weighing station alleviates potential problems with the truck flow, compared to only having one weighing station, but a more effective way to improve fuel reception would be to decrease the unloading time by using automatic sampling. It was found more beneficial to use high capacity trucks for fuel reception, as fewer trucks need to enter the plant. The study shows that agent-based modeling can be utilized as a study method in power plant fuel reception areas, where all elements affect each other due to the dynamic nature of the logistics.

EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS ON THE BIODIVERSITY OF WADI EL-ASSIUTI PROTECTED AREA

Wadi El-Assiuti Protected Area (WAPA) in Assiut Governorate is considered as the first and foremost zone for wildlife breeding and endangered species. This study investigates the effects of different environmental issues of both anthropogenic and natural factors on the wildlife of WAPA. The examined factors are air quality, water quality, noise levels, local weather, and human activity in WAPA. Additional to environmental agents, biodiversity is monitored by recording the number of each fauna type from 2008 to 2016. The results showed that several kinds of wildlife in WAPA have been endangered while numbers of other increased. The examined air, water, and local weather proved that they have no negative effects on the endangered species. The main reason of the disappeared or increases some species are the human activities especially cultivation and construction of several quarries in the WAPA zone. The quarries are companion with noise, dust, contaminations from their vehicles, and huge movement of human and trucks that have direct impact on the wildlife in WAPA. The main conclusion of this study is that removing the encroachment from the WAPA is the only method to protect its biodiversity.

Flexible Pavement Evaluation: A Case Study

This study is a survey to evaluate the flexible pavement conditions to determine and specify the types of the failures in the pavement for the selected highway. It is very significant to evaluate and identify the causes of the flexible pavement failures and select the proper and best treatment and maintenance type. The study had two major and critical goals which covered by considering the following three tasks; the first was the visual evaluation and inspection of existing flexible pavement conditions including the failures, the second to determine and find out the actual causes of these failures in the pavement, and the third is to select the most and effective treatments and maintenance types. As a case study, Khanaqin-Kalar 2-way 2-lane rural highway was selected for evaluation and inspection purposes. The field evaluation works were achieved on the existing flexible pavement conditions of the selected rural highway. The results were most of the damages and failures in the pavement are serious and extreme surface deformation, cracks, disintegration, and surface defects. These damages and failures are caused by fatigue and other types of failures resulted from the movement of heavy vehicles and trucks, poor drainage design, unsuitable pavement layers thickness design, and improper pavement mix design and selected materials.

A New Method for Haul Road Design in Open-Pit Mines to Support Efficient Truck Haulage Operations

The design of a haul road for an open-pit mine can significantly affect the cost associated with hauling ore and waste to the surface. This study proposes a new method for haul road design in open-pit mines to support efficient truck haulage operations. The road layout in open-pit mines was optimized by using raster-based least-cost path analysis, and the resulting zigzag road sections were simplified by applying the Douglas-Peucker algorithm. In addition, the road layout was modified by reflecting the radius of curvature suggested in the road design guides. Finally, a three-dimensional model reflecting the results of the road design was created by combining the road layout modification result with the slope of the open-pit mine and the bench design result. The application of the proposed method to an area containing gold deposits made it possible to design a haul road for open-pit mines such that it supported efficient truck haulage operations; furthermore, the time required for truck movement along the road could be estimated. The proposed method is expected to be useful for planning and designing open-pit mines and to facilitate the improvement of the road design function of existing mining software applications.

Multi-matrix environmental monitoring to assess heavy element distribution around a municipal solid waste landfill in Italy

Multi-matrix environmental monitoring was used to evaluate the influence of a municipal solid waste landfill (Ginestreto, Emilia Romagna, Italy) on the level and distribution of heavy elements in the surrounding environment (air, soil and soil biota). Concentrations of As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Sb, Tl and Zn were measured by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry in transplanted lichens, topsoils and isopods. The highest accumulation levels found for Cd, Cr, Pb, Sb and Zn in lichens transplanted within the Ginestreto landfill. However, similar concentrations of these heavy elements were also found in lichens exposed in monitoring sites influenced by other man-made sources, such as vehicle traffic and truck movements. The fallout of heavy elements emitted by the landfill had low impact on their levels in topsoil: Cd, Cr, Pb, Sb and Zn showed higher contents in topsoil collected close to the landfill and a slight decrease in concentrations with increasing distance from the landfill. There was no variation in heavy element accumulation in isopods in relation to distance from the landfill. The results of this study indicate that the Ginestreto municipal solid waste landfill had limited impact on the environmental distribution of heavy elements, since accumulation and enrichment in lichens and topsoils were only detected close to the landfill, up to about 100 m from its border.

A Proposal for Controlling Work Progress on Excavation Projects Using Digital Photographs

Current practice in excavation projects is characterized by a deficient control of work progress that includes estimates of daily work progress by indirect means such as manual records of truck movements, estimates of soil swelling and occasional topographic measurements (usually at start and end of projects). In this article we propose a procedure to calculate earth work volume and progress by using geotagged digital photographs taken at the construction site. This methodology helps construction managers to improve excavation progress control and it systematizes excavation records. The procedure is grounded on literature review, the experience gained from controlled experiments and its application on a case study. With a relatively low effort (approx. 3 hrs.) the proposal enabled us to measure excavation work progress from around 50 geotagged digital photos with a precision of about 8-10% as compared to the traditional excavation volume estimate obtained from truck movement records. Best results were realized for large earth movements recorded on a weekly basis. Precision decreased for small earth movements (e.g., daily work progress control). The proposal includes recommendations for capturing the digital photos; formation of a point cloud model using photogrammetric software; formation of a mesh model and calculation of the excavation volume. Considerations for obstructing construction equipment and complex geometries are included.

Evaluation of the traffic impact on residential building

The paper presents an example of evaluation of the traffic impacts on the residential building. Residents noticed numerous damage to the building, which, in their opinion, were caused by the movement of trucks from the nearby transport base of agricultural equipment’s. The control seals have been glued on all cracks of the building and elements close to the road, in order to determine the damages propagation. The building and ground vibrations were established during the study. The vibration accelerations in the frequency function at the selected points of building were measured. Taking into account the dynamic impact scales (DIS), the vibration influences on the building were specified. Measurements of accelerations and vibration velocities inside a building were also conducted in order to determine the harmfulness of vibration in relation to the people. As a result of vibration accelerations test in different places of building, it was found that building is located in the first zone of the DIS, which vibrations are classified as imperceptible by the building. The harmfulness of occurring vibrations to the people staying in a residential building at the analysed road was also not found.

Estimating the Cost of Congestion to the Trucking Industry

Because of the critical role of safe and reliable truck movements in sustainable economic growth, public- and private-sector transportation managers continually monitor and evaluate the efficiency of the national roadway system. A key impediment to nimble supply chains is the level of traffic congestion experienced on U.S. roadways and the subsequent costs that are incurred because of that congestion. To facilitate the development of a methodology for quantifying congestion, a standardized approach is presented for calculating congestion figures that are comparative on a year-over-year basis. With this methodology, time delays on the National Highway System in 2014 were calculated at more than 728 million hours, equating to approximately $49.6 billion in increased congestion-related costs to the trucking industry. The congestion was heavily concentrated in urban areas, with 88.1% of the total cost occurring on only 17.6% of the National Highway System network. The lost productivity is equivalent to 264,781 commercial truck drivers sitting idle for an entire working year. Additionally, the average truck experienced an increased cost of $4,546 because of congestion, a figure that varied widely depending on the number of miles a particular truck traveled in a particular area. Finally, the presented standardized methodology enables 2014 to be used as a base year for comparison with future years, allowing for the monitoring of congestion effects over time. As a result, transportation planners and managers can evaluate system metrics such as planning efficiency and productivity for a longer time. The methodology also supports assessment of shorter-term events, such as natural disasters and infrastructure improvement projects.