Incorporating route reoptimisation in the management of vehicle routing ope
rations under stochastic demands yields benefits such as lower transportati
on and inventory costs. Because an investment in advanced information syste
ms is indispensable for route reoptimisation, a firm needs to estimate the
likely magnitude of these benefits before making an investment decision. Th
is study addresses this information needed by providing a framework to asse
ss the benefits more completely than previous studies. The framework, which
is the key contribution of the research, comprises a set: of tractable mod
els that together address the costs of both inventory and transportation. B
y accounting for key determinants of route reoptimisation's benefits, inclu
ding, for example, the volatility of customer demands, the models are appli
cable to a broad range of vehicle routing scenarios.