讲座题目：Dynamic Truckload Hyperpath Model: The Engine for Smart On-Line Freight Logistics

主讲人：聂宇 教授（Yu (Marco) Nie） 美国西北大学

时间：2017年12月15日（星期五） 14：00

地点：犀浦校区X2533

讲座内容简介：

The trucking industry, the backbone of freight transportation in many parts of the world, is highly fragmented.    Operating in such an intensely competitive market is challenging, especially for the small carriers who have neither much bargain power nor viable means for consolidation or collaboration.  The key to survive thus lies in the ability to discover high-value loads as quickly as possible and the flexibility to follow them wherever they arise.   Compared to big players, however, small carriers are also at disadvantage when it comes to accessing load information across the entire network. Not surprisingly, when left to their own devices, these carriers often fail to match their assets to most profitable loads in time, which not only hurts their profitability but also drags down the efficiency of the entire industry. 

One of the promising solutions to breaking this information barrier, enabled by mobile computing and communication technologies, is the online freight exchange (OFEX) system, which provides a platform that allows shippers to advertise loads publicly or privately to a large number of freight operators that are looking for loads.  The fundamental question for an OFEX platform is how to guide the carriers, who do not usually have a contractual relationship with the platform, to haul most suitable loads, by leveraging on the platform's visibility of network-wide demand and supply information.  This question is at the core of OFEX's value-added services, and also the focus of the talk.  

In this talk I will describe a novel problem of guiding trucks to match with the most suitable loads in order to maximize expected profit in a shipping tour. Leveraging on OFEX's visibility of network-wide demand and supply information, the underlying optimization problem prescribes a hyperpath-based, joint routing and bidding strategy in an intercity truckload shipping context.  The problem has several distinctive features: complete decentralization of decision-making, integration of bidding and routing, and representation of adaptive decision as hyperpath.  I will also discuss how this problem may be extended and integrated into the OFEX’s cover business operations.

主讲人简介：

Yu (Marco) Nie

Professor

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

A328, Technological Institute

Evanston, IL 60208， USA

Dr. Marco Nie is currently a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University. He received his B.S. in Structural Engineering from Tsinghua University, his M.S. from National University of Singapore and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis.  Dr. Nie’s research covers a variety of topics in the areas of transportation systems analysis, transportation economics, and sustainable transportation. Dr. Nie is currently a member of the TRB committees on Transportation Network Modeling (ADB30).  He also serves as an Associate Editor for Transportation Science, an Area Editor for Networks and Spatial Economics, and is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for Transportmetrica-B and Transportation Research Part B. Dr. Nie’s research has been supported by National Science Foundation, Transportation Research Board, US Department of Transportation, US Department of Energy, and Illinois Department of Transportation.