In this paper, the authors discuss industry-university collaborative resear
ch aimed at improving the performance of truckload trucking operations for
a major North American carrier through the development of alternative dispa
tching methods. The research detailed in this paper develops regularly sche
duled delivery capacity in the form of delivery lanes, hubs and zones which
regularize driver tours while providing performance benefits for the carri
er, The impact of the alternative methods developed are studied through ext
ensive experimentation using discrete event simulation and actual demand da
ta provided by the industrial partner, (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All r
ights reserved.