A novel approach for designing rental vehicle repositioning strategies

Abstract

An important tactical decision for vehicle rental providers is the design of a repositioning strategy to balance vehicle utilization with customer wait times due to vehicle unavailabilities. To address this problem, this article analyzes alternative repositioning strategies: a no-repositioning strategy, a customer repositioning strategy, and a vehicle repositioning strategy, using queuing network models that are able to handle stochastic demand and vehicle unavailabilities. Optimization models are formulated to determine the repositioning fractions for alternate strategies that minimize the rental provider's cost by balancing repositioning costs with customer waiting penalty costs. The nonlinear optimization problems are challenging to solve because the objective functions are non-differentiable and the decision variables (such as effective arrival rates and customer repositioning fractions) are interrelated. Therefore, a twophase sequential solution approach to estimate the repositioning fractions is developed. Phase 1 determines the effective arrival rates by developing an approximate network model, deriving structural results, determining a high-quality solution point, and refining the solution. Phase 2 determines the repositioning fractions by solving a transportation problem. Numerical experiments are used to evaluate the efficacy of the proposed solution approach, to analyze alternate repositioning strategies, and to illustrate how the developed techniques can be adopted to create a better readiness at a depot.

A nested semi-open queuing network model for analyzing dine-in restaurant performance

“…p X x ð Þ; p Y y ð Þ, and p Z z ð Þ denote the pdf of the random variables X, Y, and Z, respectively. Roy and De Koster [17], and Roy et al [16] show that a semi-open queuing network with C resources and a single delay station can be modeled using an M/G/C queue. Therefore, the semi-open queue network in Fig.…”

Optimal Fleet Policy of Rental Vehicles with Relocation: A Simulation Study

“…Building upon Barth and Todd [25], they investigate the use of two relocation mechanisms during periods of high demand: shortest time and inventory balancing. Roy et al [26] analyze the impacts of various relocation strategies on customer wait time in a small metropolitan rental company. Tey develop a semiclosed queuing network that evaluates the efectiveness of three diferent relocation strategies: no relocations, customer relocations, and vehicle relocations.…”

“…As suggested by numerous studies, a higher utilisation rate will lead to higher revenue [5,19,26]. What is not apparent in any of these studies, however, is the composition of utilisation.…”

Bibliometric analysis of carsharing and car rental research in the field of urban transportation and tourism transportation

“…The third cluster (in blue, top right), contains research documents focusing on the role of car rental enterprises in tourism transportation. The majority of the articles in that cluster include the use of integer-linear programming techniques to solve problems in tourist mobility, car rental systems, relocation strategies and fleet assignment (Conejero et al, 2016;George & Xia, 2011;Martin et al, 2019;Roy et al, 2014).…”