NSF/USDOT: Collaborative Research: Impact of Real-time Carrier-shipper Interaction on Transportation System Performance

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

The transportation sector continues to adopt telecommunication and information technologies that provide real-time information to enhance productivity and performance. Recently these technologies have started to modify the way contracts are negotiated, by enabling demand and supply to be matched dynamically through market mechanisms. A significant change may be taking place in the structure of the transportation market, with the development of auction markets for transportation services, in the form of Internet sites that match shipments (shippers demand) and transportation capacity (carriers offer). The development of these virtual hubs and their characteristics have fundamental implications for the methodologies to both analyze the performance of such systems, as well as to incorporate these mechanisms in the operational decisions of carriers and shippers (and/or their agents). This research project will develop modeling techniques to analyze carrier-shipper interaction in the context of an online electronic transportation marketplace. Carriers and shippers are modeled as entities that determine their interaction with other agents and with their environment on the basis of history (experience), learning, expectations about future consequences of current actions, and evolving strategies. In addition to developing methods to support individual player strategies in a non-cooperative decision environment with varying degrees of information sharing, the study investigates overall market behavior, its efficiency and resulting shipper service levels under different market settings and individual player strategies. The results obtained are of relevance to both shippers and carriers operating in online markets, as well as government agencies and policy-making entities concerned with the structure and efficiency of the transportation system. To take advantage of potential opportunities in real-time auction markets, both shippers and carriers require a new level of mastery of real-time information about not only the state of their shipments and./or fleets, but also about the entire system transacted through those markets. The methodological contributions of the research have applications that extend beyond the realm of transportation systems to include various infrastructure services that are distributed over space and time.