Specification for a dynamic vehicle routing and scheduling system

Abstract

In an e-commerce environment, order fulfilment is driven by customer demands and expectations. A dynamic vehicle routing and scheduling system may be specified which allows e-commerce customers to select their own delivery Time Windows and have these confirmed on-line as they place their order. The methodology is based upon demand forecasting, which leads to the generation of phantom orders and phantom routes. Subsequently, actual orders substitute for phantom orders in an on-line customer order process. The routing and scheduling method includes using both parallel tour-building and parallel insertion algorithms. Customer service levels are confirmed using GPS tracking and tracing, and a feedback loop uses expert systems or artificial intelligence as an input to the demand forecasting data to restart the whole process.