Proceedings of the 26th Chinese Control Conference

July 26-31, 2007, Zhangjiajie, Hunan, China

A Real Case of Routing Design for Less-Than-Truckload Motor

Carriers Using Genetic Algorithm
Zhang Jian, Wu Yaohua, Wang Jingbo
The Logistics Institute, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, P. R. China
E-mail: jian.zhang8259@126.com

Abstract: How to minimize costs while maintaining a certain level of service is the main concern for most
Less-Than-Truckload motor carriers. Hence it is needed to consolidate flows of small shipments and to determine all routes
for a fleet of vehicles. In this paper, we proposed a model to describe the routing problem of a real LTL carrier to minimize
the long-haul cost with constraints of service time, capacities of different vehicles and management rules. And this paper
solved this problem with genetic algorithm and gave the final results using real data of a company in Shandong province,
China.
Key Words: Genetic Algorithm, Vehicle Routing, Less-Than-Truckload, Real Case

1 INTRODUCTION
For less-than-truckload (LTL) motor carriers, the key to
cost-effective shipping is to consolidate loads from dif-
ferent customers in order to make the best use of trail-
ers[1]. To accomplish this, carriers load the freight
originating at a consolidate center (End-Of-Line termi-
nal, EOL terminal) onto a long-haul truck, which carries
it to a break-bulk terminal (hub). At this terminal, the
freight is unloaded, sorted, consolidated and reloaded
onto other long-haul trailers which will carry it to an-
other break-bulk terminal or to destination EOL termi-
nal[2].
But cost-effective shipping is not the only challenge for
these carries since they have to ensure a certain level of
service in terms of delivery time or service frequencies.
There are many medium-scaled motor carriers in China
at present. Generally they own several dozens of termi-
nals and have the regional advantage in their regions.
They usually offer a delivery time of 24 hours for most
of their services, 48 hours for a few services. Normally,
the freight from a region is collected before the evening,
and the long-haul transportation is made at night and
local deliveries are made in the morning.
This paper concerns the long-haul transportation for
these sorts of carriers. The goal is to determine routes of
the long-haul transportation between EOL terminals to
minimize costs while maintaining a certain level of ser-
vice.
The target company of this paper is one of the most in-
fluential motor carriers, which owns about forty EOL
terminals and one break-bulk terminal in Shandong
province, China. In its network there are two ways of
routing. One way is to carry the freight directly between
a pair of terminals. The other way is to collect freight
from several origins to the break-bulk terminal, then
consolidate all the freights and deliver them to different
destinations. Both situations are shown in Fig.1. For the
second situation, there may be several stops for collect-
ing or peddling freight. The first way has a satisfying
service time, but in many cases is not cost-effecting be-
cause of the emptiness of trailers.
Fig. 1 Direct route and transferring route
In order to manage the flow of freight more efficiently,
the company demands that the first way can only be
used between several pairs of terminals which usually
are relatively fixed. For the second way, all freight
should be consolidated to its break-bulk terminal first
and then to destination terminals.
Routing design was done relying upon experience in
this company before our work and there exist several
problems as follows:
1) It is difficult to vary the routes according to the flow
of freight which changes frequently.
2) All the long-haul trailers return back along the origi-
nal route. This results in the poor use of trailers and high
costs.
3) It is hard to compute repeatedly. When the freight
varies in a wide range, it is probable that a large amount
of freight can’t be carried in time.
2 DEFINATION OF THE PROBLEM AND
OBJECTIVE SETTING
Routing design of long-haul transportation for LTL mo-
tor carriers is know as many-to-many problem. Here we
can split this case into two parts: 1) between which pair
of terminals should direct service is offered, 2) given a
set of direct services, how should the freight be routed
over the network[3].
The exact mathematical approach to this type of prob-
lem is usually non-viable for solving real-life prob-
lem[4]. According to our research for many sorts of op-
timizing algorithms, we choose genetic algorithm to
solve the problem of this company.

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The concrete problem can be formulated as follows: to ⎧1
select the routing strategy which produces of least total yijk = ⎨ if link(i,j) is on the peddling route of vehicle k
long-haul cost for the network. In the meanwhile, all ⎩0
freight carried inside this province should be delivered otherwise
within 24 hours. The routing design problem can be stated as follows:
N N M
An unlimited fleet with different capacity can be used min z = ∑∑∑ cijk ( xijk + yijk ) (1)
since this company can use other carriers’ vehicles by i = 0 j = 0 k =1
economic ways. If the load between a pair of terminals s.t.
exceeds vehicle capacity, as many vehicles as are full N N

are sent directly to the destination. The rest of load ∑∑

i=0 j=0
δ ijyijk  qk k = 1, 2, , K (2)
should be consolidated.
N N
All terminals potentially act concurrently as freight ori-
gins and destinations. So each of them should be in-
∑∑
i=0 j=0
δ ijxijk  qk k = 1, 2, , K (3)
cluded in a collecting route and a peddling route. For the N N

situation of transferring, each vehicle traveling from the ∑∑ ( x ijk + yijk )tij  R k = 1, 2,, K (4)
i=0 j=0
break-bulk terminal will unload freight at several stops
until it is empty, and then load freight from other stops. yijk ≠ xijk i, j = 0,1, 2,, N , k = 1, 2,, K (5)
That is, it first travels along the peddling route, then K N
⎧K , j = 0
along the collecting route, as shown in Fig. 2. ∑∑ xijk = ⎨ (6)
k =1 i =1 ⎩1, j = 1, 2, , N
K N
⎧K , i = 0
∑∑ xijk = ⎨ (7)
k =1 i =1 ⎩1, i = 1, 2,, N
where,
cijk = ck′ + ck′′tij (8)
The objective is to minimize the total long-haul cost.
The constraints are:
1) The total freight carried by vehicle k is not greater
than its maximum capacity, as shown in constraints (2)
Fig. 2 Relation between two routes
and (3).
To simplify the model and get effective algorithm, we 2) The sum of collecting time and peddling time for ve-
consider that: 1)all freight are the same besides the size, hicle k is not more than 24 hours respectively (4). Then
2) the capacity of the break-bulk terminal is unlimited, the sum of collecting time, peddling time is no more
3)for the same vehicle, it just collects freight at all stops than 24 hours for vehicle k.
when traveling towards the break-bulk terminal, and it 3) Constraint (5) indicates that link (i, j) is either on the
just peddles when traveling away from the break-bulk collecting route or on the peddling route for the same
terminal. vehicle.
4) For each collecting route, the last terminal is always
3 FORMULATION FOR THE PROBLEM the break-bulk terminal, and for each peddling route, the
Parameters: first terminal is always the break-bulk terminal. Ex-
N = number of EOL terminals (0 denotes the cept for break-bulk terminal, Collecting tasks of i and j
break-bulk terminal). are served by one and only one vehicle, so do peddling
δ ij = load to be transported from origin i to des- tasks, as shown in (6) and (7).
tina tion j. 4 PROPOSED METHOD
qk = maximum capacity of vehicle k.
K = number of vehicles. 4.1 General Scheme
cijk = long-haul cost of vehicle k from i to j.
The general scheme of our algorithm is as follows:
ck′ = fixed cost of vehicle k. 1) With regard to the loads to be transported between
ck′′ = coefficient of variable cost of vehicle k. each origin-destination pair, it may be that some of them
tij = travel time between terminal i and j, not includ- exceed the capacity of the vehicles. In this case, the al-
ing loading/unloading/waiting time. gorithm first determines the full vehicles which will
R = maximum service time represented by hours, travel directly from origin to destination and then recal-
R=24 culates the new load flows with which it is going to
Variables: work for consolidation.
2) Vehicles with greater capacity are first chosen.
⎧1
xijk = ⎨ if link(i,j) is on the collecting route of vehicle 3) We disregard the service time constraint when the
⎩0 initial solution is formed. After the construction of solu-
k otherwise tions, the service level corresponding to these solutions
must be evaluated. If none of the solutions constructed
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by the algorithm fulfills the service restrictions, then Distances and average rates between two terminals are
adjust the amount of vehicles and calculate again. shown in Fig.4.
We choose genetic algorithm to solve the routing design
problem.
4.2 Encoding of Chromosomes and Construction of
Initial Population
Here we use natural numbers to encode chromosomes.
Concrete method is as follows:
 Choose K-1 natural numbers from 1 to 2N − 1
randomly
 Change the above natural numbers into binary
numbers
 Add the these binary numbers according to
their bits
Fig.4 Distances and average rates between terminals
Thus we get a set of figures as one of the chromosomes.
In the above steps, K is number of vehicles estimated Tab.1 is its real data of freight flow carried from
and N is number of EOL terminals. For example, when break-bulk terminal which is located in Jinan. Before
K=4 and N=10, we choose 3 natural numbers from 1 to our work all vehicles return to the break-bulk terminal
1023 randomly. Assuming that the three numbers are along their original routes. In Tab.1, we can see that
10,600 and 923 which can be changed into binary num- values of some data are zero. That is because at that day,
bers as 1010, 1001011000 and 1110011011, respec- the number of vehicles and their routes can’t meet with
tively. Adding them according to their bits, we obtained the demand of those terminals- some freight in
2111023021. We regard figure’s order as the serial break-bulk terminal didn’t carry to EOL terminals at
number of terminals, figure’s value as the serial number that very day.
of routes. Then chromosome 2111023021 indicates: Tab.1 Data of Freight Flow in Our Real Case
Route 0: terminal 5, terminal 8
Serial Load Carried/m3
Route 1: terminal 2, terminal 3, terminal 4, terminal0 Origins Destinations Number of
Route 2: terminal 1, terminal 6, terminal 9 Oct.25 Dec.26
Destinations
Route 3: terminal 7 Jinan Changqing 2 16.80 16.80
Jinan Liaocheng 3 32.00 34.80
Repeat the procedure and we can get many chromo- Jinan Shenxian 4 8.00 8.00
somes which are individuals of the initial population. Jinan Donge 5 8.00 8.00
Jinan Yanggu 6 8.00 8.00
4.3 Fitness Function and Parameters Jinan Pingyin 7 8.00 8.00
Jinan Feicheng 8 8.80 8.80
Choose 1/z as the fitness function. Jinan Taian 9 28.80 28.80
Jinan Laiwu 10 16.00 23.20
Parameters required were derived empirically and set as Jinan Xintai 11 8.00 15.20
follows: Jinan Yishui 12 6.00 6.00
pop_size = 1000, population size Jinan Linyi 13 38.40 38.40
max-gen =50, number of generations Jinan Zaozhuang 14 38.40 38.40
Jinan Tengzhou 15 16.00 16.00
pc=0.6, crossover rate Jinan Jining 16 38.40 38.40
pm=0.001, mutation rate Jinan Yanzhou 17 16.00 16.00
Jinan Heze 18 51.20 76.00
Jinan Juxian 19 4.00 4.00
5 A REAL CASE Jinan Rizhao 20 28.00 28.00
Freight flow which is to be carried from EOL terminals
5.1 Data Preparation to break-bulk terminal is usually less than that of from
All the computation is reliant on the real situation of our break-bulk terminal to EOL terminals.
case in Shandong province of China. Fig.3 shows this Tab.2 lists the fixed and variable costs of several types
company’s network in Shandong province. of vehicle.
Tab.2 Fixed and Variable Costs of Vehicles
Length of Vehicles Fixed Cost Variable Cost
(m) (Yuan/day) (Yuan/km)
4 490.36 1.17
4.2 493.12 1.20
7.2 517.30 1.32
8.5 522.89 1.35
9.2 528.01 1.39
9.6 531.10 1.45
10.2 538.87 1.66
11.6 549.15 1.82
12 552.66 2.10
Fig.3 Distribution of terminals for this company 12.8 557.96 2.25

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5.2 Computational Results Tab.6 Summary of Comparison for Dec. 26, 2006
Routes Designed Routes Designed
After computing, we got the results for several days. Items
Through Experience Using GA
Tab.3 and Tab.4 are the results for Oct.25, 2006. Tab.5 Total Distance 3460 3020
Number of Vehicles 13 11
and Tab.6 are the results for Dec.26, 2006. Long-Haul Cost 11926 10224.9
Tab.3 Results for Oct.25, 2006
According to data on Oct. 25, 2006, we reduced 833.40
Routes Designed Routes Designed Yuan and reduced 2 vehicles to carry the freight of
Through Experience Using GA
Travel Travel that day.
Route Capacity Route Capacity
Time Time While on Dec 26, 2006, though a route was added to
14 38.4 13.5hr 14 38.4 13.5hr carry the freight origined from Heze, we reduced 2 ve-
18 51.2 13.5hr 18 51.2 13.5hr
16 38.4 10hr 16 38.4 10hr hicles and saved 1701.10 Yuan for that day by optimiz-
9 28.8 8hr 9 28.8 8hr ing the company’s routes.
13 38.4 20hr 13,7 46.4 15hr Besides that, we can ensure that all the freight could be
15,17 32 11hr 3,5,11 48 18hr
12,19,20 38 23.6hr 8,10,15 40.8 18hr carried at that very day by planning the routes using
10,11 24.8 8hr 12,20 34 20hr genetic algorithm.
3 32 9hr 2,4,6,19 36.8 20hr
2 16.8 3hr 17 16 8hr
7,8 16.8 6.4hr
6 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
4,5,6 24 12hr
Genetic algorithm is a kind of heuristic method to solve
Tab.4 Summary of Comparison for Oct. 25, 2006 routing plan problem, which can obtain good solution.
This research applied genetic algorithm to solve a real
Routes Designed Routes Designed
Items
Through Experience Using GA
problem in Shandong province, China. The results ob-
Total Distance 2920 3080 tained for the application provided a notable reduction
Number of Vehicles 12 10 in long-haul cost. In order to solve problems with larger
Long-Haul cost 10613 9779.6
network and more complex, efforts must be made to
improve both model and resolution process.
Tab.5 Results for Dec. 26, 2006
Routes Designed Routes Designed REFERENCES
Through Experience Using GA
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