Transportation Service Provider Collaboration: Benefits and Insights

Truck-based freight transportation in the United States is expected to remain an integral part of the economy for the foreseeable future. Despite its continued importance, the industry remains fragmented and economically, socially, and environmentally unsustainable. The focus of this research is exploring opportunities to reduce costs and increase sustainability through collaboration among transportation service providers (TSPs). The objective is to explore freight routing and consolidation decisions for collaborating transportation service providers, introduce the transportation service provider collaboration problem (TSP-CP), and evaluate the potential benefits of TSP collaboration using industry representative data sets. The results provide new insights on the benefits of collaboration as well as the effects of the type and size of the TSP on the expected benefits derived from collaboration

Exit Polling in Canada: An Experiment

Although exit polling has not been used to study Canadian elections before, such polls have methodological features that make them a potentially useful complement to data collected through more conventional designs. This paper reports on an experiment with exit polling in one constituency in the 2003 Ontario provincial election. Using student volunteers, a research team at Wilfrid Laurier University conducted an exit poll in the bellwether constituency of Kitchener Centre to assess the feasibility of mounting this kind of study on a broader scale. The experiment was successful in a number of respects. It produced a sample of 653 voters that broadly reflected the partisan character of the constituency, and which can hence be used to shed light on patterns of vote-switching and voter motivations in that constituency. It also yielded insights about best practices in mounting an exit poll in the Ontario context, as well as about the potential for using wireless communication devices to transmit respondent data from the field. The researchers conclude that exit polling on a limited basis (selected constituencies) is feasible, but the costs and logistics associated with this methodology make a province-wide or country-wide study unsupportable at present

Targeting Collection Assessment Data to the Intended Audience

At Jacksonville State University, additions of new degree programs have added greater importance to collection assessments as a guide for future budget planning and the accreditation process. Collection assessments give librarians and administrators an overview of the library’s collections, justification for expenditures, and disclosure of areas in need of strengthening. Assessments highlight resources and their access points, while justifying the resources’ presence to faculty stakeholders. An approachable assessment can be a valuable tool to introduce or reacquaint faculty with the collection development process and with classroom and research resources

“Don’t Fear the Literature Review!” A Review of Literature Review Teaching Tools

The literature review is a difficult aspect of research methods courses. The act of artfully weaving together content from an array of scholarly sources is a challenge to teach. This presentation introduces faculty members to literature review teaching strategies, including multiple pathways to better understand a topic\u27s pertinent literature

Freight Sequencing to Improve Hub Operations in the Less-Than-Truckload Freight Transportation Industry

In less-than-truckload freight transportation, hub operations affect the service levels that carriers are able to provide their customers. This paper focuses on improving the efficiency of hub operations by reducing freight handling time and cost. Specifically, the freight sequencing problem (FSP) is investigated to determine the freight unloading and loading sequence that minimizes the time for dock workers to transfer shipments from origin trailers to destination trailers. The FSP is modeled as a Rural Postman Problem (RPP) and three algorithms are compared: trailer-at-atime, nearest neighbor, and balance-and-connect. Using five industrial data sets, the results demonstrate the effectiveness, advantages, and disadvantages of the approaches

Collaborative Freight Transportation to Improve Efficiency and Sustainability

Collaborative distribution offers the potential for substantial improvements in freight transportation. As collaboration increases, more loads are available for sharing among transportation service providers, leading to more fully loaded trailers that travel fewer miles and reduce the cost per load on average. In this study, we develop approaches to analyze improvements in key performance measures as collaboration increases in freight transportation. For the data sets analyzed, improvements include a 34% increase in trailer fullness, a 29% reduction in average costs per load, and a 25% decrease in average miles per load. Based on this analysis, collaboration provides substantial improvements for transportation service providers and opportunities for increased driver retention. Drivers would benefit from a better quality of life, more local routes, and more time home with their families. In addition to the economic and social benefit, the environmental benefit include reducing the miles driven and the resulting CO2 emissions

A Library, a Tailgate, and a Tornado: Outreach Strategies amidst Upheaval

The annual library tailgate event held at a medium-sized academic university library at Jacksonville State University welcomes students, faculty, staff, and community members with the purpose of increasing their comfort and familiarity with the library. The tailgate draws on school spirit to facilitate stronger connections across campus. The event includes activities to highlight the library’s information access points in a relaxed atmosphere. The tailgate has taken many forms based on logistics and student feedback. Despite a tornado that devastated the majority of the campus in March 2018, the library tailgate has continued to evolve by accommodating space constraints and safety issues caused by construction