Claudio Szwarcfiter

and 2 more

As greenhouse gas emissions increasingly become a central issue in global sustainability, it is imperative to develop solutions that effectively reduce avoidable emissions. One significant contributor to these emissions is the high percentage of empty trucks on the road at any given time. This paper aims to investigate a full truckload marketplace, specifically designed to utilize the empty cargo space of trucks, thereby minimizing empty backhauls by facilitating container transportation between two terminals. The study examines two levels of planning: operational and tactical. At the operational level, we present a lower bound for the marketplace's costs and propose an online just-in-time policy. This policy involves the marketplace's decision to accept or reject a truck offer, aiming to synchronize the incoming rate of truck offers with that of shipment requests, ultimately maximizing profitability. Moving to the tactical planning problem, our objective is to identify optimal shipping prices and truck payments that maximize the objective function of the marketplace. Two scenarios determine this objective function: the marketplace can operate as a profit-maximizing firm or as a social planner. In the latter scenario, the goal is to maximize the volume of transportation services provided, consequently minimizing the additional non-productive miles driven by empty trucks. To address the tactical planning problem, we propose algorithms that leverage the problem structure. Furthermore, we conduct simulation experiments for both planning levels. The results reveal several key findings, including a pooling effect triggered by higher rates of drivers logging into the marketplace. Additionally, we observe an increase in optimal truck costs and shipping prices in response to an escalation in the delay penalty. Furthermore, we demonstrate the greater social value generated by the social planner approach. Overall, the experimental results offer valuable insights and practical guidelines for decision-makers regarding market design and pricing decisions.