A generic decision model of refueling policies: a case study of a Brazilian motor carrier

Abstract

Considering the high impact of the transport on the total logistics cost, the transportation management is fundamental to maintain the company's competitiveness. Particularly in Brazil, fuel represents a significant cost for the motors carriers. So, this paper presents the development of a generic mathematic model that optimizes the fuel cost and assists the company's decision making on refuelling policy choices. Basically, in order to reduce the total cost, this model analyses the fuel prices variations in a road network and, thereby, it define: (i) which truck stop(s) to use, and (ii) how much fuel to buy at the chosen truck stop(s). Therefore, to assist the development of this model, a set of publications was raised related to the techniques of refuelling optimization. As opposed to the papers analyzed, in which, the models are validated using simulations, the presented model uses a case study as a reference and, in this case, the model provided a decrease of 2.3% in total fuel cost.

Reinforcement learning for the traveling salesman problem with refueling

“…The following restrictions are considered: vehicle fuel tank capacity, minimum amount of fuel for refueling and guarantee of completing the entire route [60]. In addition, this work considers the possibility of using a tow truck in case fuel runs out between two locations, which requires an additional cost for that.…”

“…A mathematical formulation for the proposed problem is based in [10,60,70] and contains two decision variables: u i, j and z i j . The u i, j assumes 1 if the arc (i, j) makes up the solution and 0 otherwise.…”

“…In such cases, the challenge is to define a route to ensure that the vehicle carries out all the way without finishing the fuel. Following this same line, refueling problems seek to optimize the expenditure on the fuel purchase for road routes [27,60,71].…”

“…There are also applications of FRVRP to real problems. [60] have developed other example, where a fixed route refueling model for a case study of a Brazilian carrier; [73] have analyzed the influence of fuel weight, congestion, and acceleration on refueling policy optimization. Other works seek to analyze the refueling policy on variables routes [27,71].…”

Estimação de Parâmetros do Aprendizado por Reforço para o Problema de Planejamento de Rotas com Reabastecimento

“…Nesses casos, o desafioé definir uma rota que garanta que o veículo realize todo o percurso sem cessar o combustível. Seguindo essa mesma linha, os problemas de reabastecimento buscam otimizar o gasto com a compra de combustível em rotas rodoviárias (Khuller et al, 2007;Suzuki, 2012;Rodrigues Junior and Cruz, 2013).…”