Challenger Motor Freight: Improving vehicle utilization in truckload transportation

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Challenger Motor Freight, a major Canadian trucking company with annual revenues of $300 million, operates**700 vehicles in its truckload division. This study concerns the firm's network in Ontario and Quebec, where**around 150 and 100 drivers are respectively domiciled. Challenger's truckload trips go mainly from those**provinces to the US Midwest or Atlantic Coast.**The goal of this research is to attain increased vehicle utilization, defined as the percentage of total miles**driven in which a revenue-generating load is carried. When the sum of all loads destined to, and departing**from, a group of nearby cities is approximately equal, the flow of freight is termed "balanced." Profitable**truckload operations tend to be balanced. We will thus develop a model to achieve enhanced vehicle utilization**from balanced operations.**A Canadian driver, once having crossed the US border, must come back to Canada. In building Challenger's**(irregular) routes, we will seek American-origin loads leaving from near a given truck's current location, and**whose destination is in Canada. Drivers based in Quebec or Ontario often carry a backhaul load from the US to**the other province. One constraint we will enforce concerns the work-life harmony. A driver is ideally home**for a couple of days after five days on the road, or is home for 3-4 days after 10 days away.**The deliverables from this project include a new optimization model that Challenger will be able use in**balancing its operational truckload network. This model, and its associated data, when kept current, will enable**the firm to enhance the efficiency of its operations by enabling them to achieve a sustained level of vehicle**utilization.