Worker transport

Route scheduling optimization systems are typically used to organize goods transport tasks for several reasons:

historical reason: the methodologies were developed for goods transport tasks
ther are more goods transport tasks, so developers hace focused on this area
in the case of persons, the transported "goods" are extremly delicate and problematic.

In the case of certain difficult-to-manage passenger transport tasks (e.g worker transport), efficieny considerations force it, but modern and flexible route scheduling methodologies make it possible to enforce the special aspects of worker transport (minimizing travel time) with the appropriate expansion of the optimization models.

Characteristics of worker transport

The route scheduling tasks of passenger transport fidder from the tasks of goods transport in a few important features:

Minimizing travel time

In the case of most goods transport problems, we can dispense with the question of how much time each item of cargo spends on the transport vehicle. It is enough to concentrate on minimizing the kilometers traveled (and thus the direct costs of the transport). However, in the case of passenger transport, it is a legitimate demand to minimize the time that the transported persons spend traveling as much as possible. Therefore, it is necessary to create routes with a different structure instead of the circular tours typical for goods transport tasks. In the case of delivery the goal of minimizing the travel time is achieved by using routes in which workers living further away from the plant board at the beginning of the route and those ones who live closest to the plant board at the end of the route. And the domestic routes obviously go from the closer stops to the more and more distant ones.

Derived transport tasks

Traditional transport tasks are usually based on some kind of goods order, in which it is determined which items need to be delivered by what deadline and where. Route scheduling tasks related to employee travel must be derived from the employees' shift schedule. Based on the shift schedules, it is possible to determine how many people should be picked up and dropped off at each stop.

Handling of stops

In order to provide bus services for workers, bus stops must be designated where workers can get on and off the routes. Workers shall be clearly assigned to a stop, so that the range of stops to be visited and the workers to be picked up or set down at that stop can be clearly identified.

Optimization task related to shift change

Transportation tasks related to employee travel are typically linked to shift changes. A shift change involves two transportation tasks: transporting the workers assigned to the starting shift and transporting the workers of the ending shift home. However, the two route scheduling tasks cannot be handled separately, since it is worth basing the return routes on the vehicles used during delivery. With a single optimization, we therefore have to solve two transport tasks in opposite directions, during which two (opposite-directional) routes have to be compiled for each vehicle.