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COUrier Routing through Innovative Emulation Learning program (COURIEL)
Project Duration

23months (11/08 - 09/10)

Project Partners

Greek, Hungarian and Romanian Post Organizations.

Sponsor

Institution of National Fellowships

1. Scope

Postal services and especially courier services environment consists one of the most developing business sectors in the urban transport services. Main characteristics of these services are the increased complexity in transport planning and execution, as well as the provision of high quality services to the customers. Courier companies deal with a varying and large number of customers that need to be served each day and, therefore, planning and execution of routes consists one of the most crucial logistics operations. The operational cost of planning and execution of routes and quality of the provided services is significantly affected by the human factor. Consequently, the development and use of an integrated learning program for postal and courier personnel seems to be vital, in order for the courier companies to adopt best practices and methods for the planning, execution and monitoring of the transportation work, aiming at the further training of the personnel and as a result the improvement of customer service. To this end the COURIEL project is addressed to courier services employees who are involved in the task of routing planning (coordinators) and execution (postmen) and it includes the development of an innovative training application- in the form of a "simulation" game- through which the employees will be trained at the handling of their route- scheduled and dynamic/ ad hoc itineraries (through appropriate scenarios)- and will assimilate the methodologies of best routing and evaluation of their performance.

2. Approach

The methodological approach of the COURIEL project can be summarized as follows:
- Requirements elicitation and analysis of training needs for courier dispatchers
- Design and Development of full training course for logistics operation on the courier sector
- Design and development of a training tool (simulation platform)
- Hands-on training of users (dispatchers)
3. Results

The results of the COURIEL project can be summarized as follows:
- Better understanding of the courier sector (in terms of training needs for courier dispatchers)
- Development of a full training course with emphasis on logistics operations, vehicle scheduling and routing techniques, Information and Communication Technologies for courier operations, and best practices
- Development of a software training tool that (simulation game) through which the dispatchers are trained in vehicle routing techniques (through appropriate scenarios)
- Increase of operational efficiency and customer service and minimization of delivery cost
- Dissemination of results to transport stakeholders and the academia
Post date: Monday, March 29, 2010 - 13:10
Transport: Competitiveness and Complemetarity of Transport Mode- Perspectives for Combined Transport

Tsamboulas, D.A., Minis, I., Karanasiou, M.

Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Combined Transport, University of the Aegean, (in CD ROM), Chios, 2007.

The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology which supports an owner/operator of a freight village to evaluate the feasibility of constructing a railway line which connects the site of the freight village with the main railway line. The methodology is based on certain assumptions which simplify the whole process. It is assumed that the costs associated with construction will be undertaken by the owner of Freight Village, who will also be the only infrastructure manager of this connection, following the relevant EU legislation. As far as the revenues of the Freight village company are concerned, they are generated from the charges paid by train companies that will use the railway infrastructure and the fact that the freight village could be more attractive to transport companies. The Net Present Value (NPV) is used as a criterion to evaluate the feasibility of the project.

Post date: Saturday, December 22, 2007 - 08:53
Dynamic Vehicle Dispatching Travel Times In Urban Settings

Zeimpekis, V., Giaglis, G., Minis, I.
Proceedings of the 21th European Conference on Operational Research (EURO XXI), 2-5 July, 2006, Reykjavik, Iceland.

During urban freight distributions, the use of an initial routing plan, although necessary, is by no means sufficient to address unforeseen events that are likely to occur during delivery execution such as vehicle breakdown, traffic congestion, and adverse weather conditions. Recent advances in telematics and positioning systems enabled freight carriers to dynamically monitor their fleet through vector maps and to improve relevant delivery network performance by using a posteriori reports that include various details concerning the execution of the distribution plan by every vehicle. Although the use of such technologies supports improved utilization and management of the delivery fleet, the related systems and algorithms are not typically designed to address unforeseen events in a systemic fashion. As a result, interventions are often performed manually (for example, through voice communication between drivers and the logistics manager) and the resulting decisions are local with sometimes limited effectiveness. This paper proposes a real-time fleet management system for dynamic incident handling in urban freight deliveries. The system monitors distribution vehicles in real-time and recommends intelligent re-routing interventions in case of vehicle delay or vehicle breakdown so that two objectives are met: minimization of delivery delays and maximization of number of served clients. The system was tested within real-life operations of two freight carriers in Greece and the results demonstrated reductions in time window violations and increases in the total number of served clients.

Post date: Saturday, December 22, 2007 - 08:51
Dynamic Incident Handling in Urban Freight Distributions

Zeimpekis, V., Giaglis, G., Minis, I. (2006)
Proc. of the 3rd International Workshop on Freight Transportation and Logistics (ODYSSEUS 2006), Altea, Spain, May 23-26, 2005.

During an urban freight distribution, a number of dynamic incidents, such as traffic congestion, adverse weather conditions and mechanical failures may occur, leading to delays, time windows violations, higher costs, and inferior customer service. This paper presents the design of a real-time fleet management system that handles dynamically unforeseen events by detecting deviations from the initial distribution schedule and by recommending intelligent re-routing interventions in order to improve urban delivery performance. A system prototype was tested within real-life operations of two freight carriers in Greece demonstrating interesting results in a number of key performance indicators such as (time window violations, operational cost and total number of served clients).

Post date: Saturday, December 22, 2007 - 08:49
Real-time fleet management for urban freight distributions

Zeimpekis, V., Mamassis, K., Giaglis G.M., Minis, I. Mavros, A.
In the Proceedings of the 9th National Congress on Logistics, Logistics 2005, Thessaloniki, Greece, 25-26 November, 2005.

Post date: Saturday, December 22, 2007 - 08:37

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