Abstract:
The transportation of logs from the forest to the mill accounts for 25-50% of
the delivered cost of wood, depending mostly on haul distance. Decision support
systems (DSS) for log truck scheduling and dispatching have the potential to reduce
transportation costs by optimally constructing routes, also known as schedules for
each truck in the fleet. The benefits that are typically achieved from DSS for log truck
scheduling and dispatching include increases in capacity through reductions in the
total vehicle miles traveled and the number of trucks needed to service all customer
loads. Research has shown that the cost reductions expected from implementation
could be five percent or more depending on the efficiency of the existing
transportation system and the spatial arrangement of log sources and destinations.
There have been implementations of DSS for log truck scheduling and
dispatching in the United States and elsewhere in the past, but the adoption of these
systems has been slow. Most of the research involving DSS for log truck scheduling
and dispatching focuses on the development of better solution methods for the log
truck scheduling problem (LTSP); however, less attention has been paid to identifying
the challenges that are slowing the adoption of DSS. This project aims to identify the
unique characteristics of the forest industry related to log transportation and
management, evaluate the existing technologies for log truck scheduling and
dispatching, assess the availability of DSS for log truck scheduling and dispatching,
and determine the challenges and opportunities of implementing DSS for log truck
scheduling and dispatching in the Pacific Northwest.
