Requirements from vehicle routing software: perspectives from literature, developers and the freight industry

Routing and scheduling software is part of the information and technology systems available to support the transport industry, and uses complex algorithms along with geographical representations of the road network to allow better planning of daily collection and delivery schedules. This paper reviews the evolution of routing and scheduling software, the algorithms used along with reported barriers to wider take-up and potential industry-driven improvements that could be made. A survey of transport companies in the U.K. was conducted in order to validate and prioritise the software capabilities that require the most development according to the new challenges that the industry is facing. Responses suggested that companies required improved route optimisation to tackle congestion based on time-dependent data and models, and greater accuracy in the representation of the road network. Not considering congestion leads to the underestimation of travel times and the production of inaccurate schedules. Literature shows that operational research techniques are available to solve problems that represent real-world conditions, but research into the relative merits of using time-dependent models needs to be undertaken. Data might be improved by cooperation between government and private sector.