Inter-firm collaboration in transportation

Dans la littérature académique et professionnelle relative au transport de marchandise, il y a longtemps que les méthodes de planification avancées ont été identifiées comme un moyen de dégager des économies grâce à une efficacité accrue des opérations de transport. Plus récemment, la collaboration interentreprises dans la planification du transport a été étudiée comme une source de gain supplémentaire en efficacité et, par conséquent, une opportunité pour dégager de nouvelles économies pour les collaborateurs. Cependant, la mise en œuvre d'une collaboration interentreprises en transports soulève un certain nombre d’enjeux. Cette thèse aborde trois thèmes centraux de la collaboration interentreprises et démontre les contributions via des études de cas dans l’industrie forestière et du meuble. Premièrement, les moyens technologiques pour soutenir une collaboration en planification du transport sont étudiés. Un système d’aide à la décision supportant la collaboration en transport forestier est présenté. Deuxièmement, le partage entre les collaborateurs du coût commun en transport est étudié. Une méthode de répartition du coût de transport tenant compte de l'impact - l’augmentation du coût de transport - des exigences inégales entre des collaborateurs est proposée. Troisièmement, la création de groupes collaboratifs - des coalitions - dans un ensemble de collaborateurs potentiel est étudiée. Un modèle réseau pour la formation d’une coalition selon les intérêts d’un sous-ensemble de collaborateurs adoptant ou pas un comportement opportuniste est détaillé. De plus, pour soutenir l'étude des thèmes précédents, la thèse comprend deux revues de la littérature. Premièrement, une revue sur les méthodes de planification et les systèmes d’aide à la décision en transport forestier est présenté. Deuxièmement, à travers la proposition d'un cadre pour créer et gérer une collaboration en transport et, plus généralement en logistique, une revue de travaux sur le transport et la logistique collaborative est offerte.In the academic and professional literature on freight transportation, computer-based planning methods have a long time ago been identified as a means to achieve cost reduction through enhanced transportation operations efficiency. More recently, inter-firm collaboration in transportation planning has been investigated as a means to provide further gains in efficiency and, in turn, to achieve additional cost reduction for the collaborators. However, implementation of inter-firm collaboration in transportation raises a number of issues. This thesis addresses three central themes in inter-firm collaboration and exemplifies the contributions in case studies involving collaboration in furniture and forest transportation. First, technological means to enable collaboration in transportation planning are studied. Embedding a computer-based planning method for truck routing, a decision support system enabling collaborative transportation is presented. Second, sharing the common transportation cost among collaborators is studied. A cost allocation method taking into account the impact – an increase of the transportation cost – of uneven requirements among collaborators is proposed. Third, building collaborating groups (i.e. coalitions) among a set of potential collaborators is studied. A network model for coalition formation by a subset of self-interested collaborators adopting or not an opportunistic behaviour is detailed. Moreover, to support the study of the aforementioned themes, the thesis includes two literature reviews. First, a survey on planning methods and decision support systems for vehicle routing problem in forest transportation is presented. Second, through the proposition of a framework for building and managing collaboration in transportation and, more generally in logistics, a survey of works on collaborative transportation and logistics is given

Under-utilisation of road freight vehicle capacity: A case for eco-efficiency through collaboration

The road haulage sector experiences a considerable amount of inefficiency, characterised by sub-optimal utilisation of an individual vehicle’s cubic load fill and weight hauling capacity. This study firstly aims to understand why – despite its evident economic and environmental cost – this phenomenon has existed over the years. Next, an overview of initiatives and opportunities for improving freight vehicle capacity utilisation will be given. This paper by no means attempts to suggest that part-loaded or empty trucking can be fully eliminated. What is argued however is that there is theoretical scope for reducing the socio-environmental externalities of these activities while sustaining – if not increasing – the benefits that road haulage offers to the economy. Alongside direct mitigation of energy efficiency (by vehicle technology and/or modal shifts), maximizing existing vehicle capacity utilization must also form an integral part of efforts to green modern road freight logistics.It is suggested that horizontal collaboration and multi-actor co-loading of freight vehicles holds the greatest potential for improving vehicle fill rates. This requires little capital investment and would mean that the same degree of utility is delivered with fewer individual vehicles on the road. However, it is also argued that a collaborative road freight model may come in conflict with modern customer demands and production patterns, which typically involve rapid just-in-time deliveries of ever smaller consignments. Subsequently the widespread outsourcing of road freight operations to external third-party operators has not resulted in pronounced gains in vehicle capacity utilisation. It appears that a transport operator has very limited ability to better consolidate goods within its vehicles, unless its contractors offer an operational environment where this is possible. This paper suggests that a platform be established that will enable transport purchasers (contractors) to identify synergies in their logistical flows. This should help to move away from one-vehicle-to-one-customer arrangements, and develop an approach where a single moving vehicle’s available capacity is viewed as a service that is available for the benefit of several actors at the same time