Dynamic pricing for vehicle ferries: Using packing and simulation to optimize revenues
Dynamic pricing for vehicle ferries: Using packing and simulation to optimize revenues
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DOI：
10.1016/j.ejor.2018.08.004
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发表时间：
2019-02
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
C. Bayliss;C. Currie;J. Bennell;A. Martínez-Sykora
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作者：
C. Bayliss;C. Currie;J. Bennell;A. Martínez-Sykora
我们提出了一种启发式的方法来车辆渡轮的收入管理问题，其目的是通过改变收取不同类型的车辆的价格，每个占用不同的甲板空间的销售的汽车票，以最大限度地提高收入。顾客根据他们的车辆类型和支付意愿到达并购买机票，这通常会随着时间的推移而增加，因为购买离出发点更近的机票的顾客往往会接受更高的价格。优化问题可以使用动态规划来解决，但是销售季节中的可能状态是适合渡轮的所有可行车辆混合的集合。随着车辆类型和渡轮规模的增加，这使得问题变得棘手。我们提出了一个状态空间的减少，它使用的车辆渡轮装载模拟器映射到一个存储空间状态的每个车辆组合。这减少了动态程序的状态空间。我们的方法允许的价值函数，以近似快速和准确地与一个相对粗糙的离散状态。我们提出了模拟销售季节使用这种减少状态空间来验证该方法。汽车轮渡装载模拟器是与汽车轮渡公司合作开发的，并解决了现实世界的限制，如机动性，电梯通道，战略停车间隙，车辆高度限制和包装解决方案的实施容易性。
We propose an heuristic approach to the vehicle ferry revenue management problem, where the aim is to maximize the revenue obtained from the sale of vehicle tickets by varying the prices charged to different vehicle types, each occupying a different amount of deck space. Customers arrive and purchase tickets according to their vehicle type and their willingness-to-pay, which typically increases over time because customers purchasing tickets closer to departure tend to accept higher prices. The optimization problem can be solved using dynamic programming but the possible states in the selling season are the set of all feasible vehicle mixes that fit onto the ferry. This makes the problem intractable as the number of vehicle types and ferry size increases. We propose a state space reduction, which uses a vehicle ferry loading simulator to map each vehicle mix to a remaining-space state. This reduces the state space of the dynamic program. Our approach allows the value function to be approximated rapidly and accurately with a relatively coarse discretization of states. We present simulations of the selling season using this reduced state space to validate the method. The vehicle ferry loading simulator was developed in collaboration with a vehicle ferry company and addresses real-world constraints such as manoeuvrability, elevator access, strategic parking gaps, vehicle height constraints and ease of implementation of the packing solutions.