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Recent trends in logistics and the need for real-time decision tools in the trucking industry

For the last ten years or so, the freight transportation industry has been facing new challenges, such as time-sensitive industrial and commercial practices as well as the globalization of markets. In response to these changes, new information-related technologies have developed rapidly: electronic data interchange (EDI) and the Internet, the Global Positioning System (GPS) via satellites, and decision support systems (DSSs). These technologies can greatly enhance the operations planning capability of freight carriers in as much as they make use of this information in order to optimise their operations. GPS, EDI and the Internet can also provide the necessary information required to achieve real-time computer-based decision making using appropriate operations research techniques. Today's decision support tools must therefore be designed to be used in a real-time environment. This paper describes this environment and proposes optimization tools that can be made available to motor carriers.