Minimisation of bus fleet and non-revenue travel requirements.
1. Problem Statement
Large operation with thousands of fixed revenue routes scheduled onto hundreds of buses driving more than 60 000 km per day;
Revenue routes have constraints which include the start- and finish- time and locations;
Drivers have constraints such as the total working hours, total driving hours and total consecutive driving hours;
Buses are constrained by the total distance before refueling and depot selection;
Project launched to identify whether improvements can be made on the current schedule in relation to the bus fleet and non-revenue travel requirements.
2. Solution Approach
A scheduling algorithm was developed to minimise the bus fleet size required to service all revenue routes whilst minimising the total non-revenue travelling distance;
Routes were allocated to buses based on position and time whilst actively adhering to driver and bus constraints;
A travel matrix was compiled to establish the minimum travel distances between routes.
3. Project Outcomes
Duty master (inclusive of all revenue routes);
Reduction in required fleet size (number of buses reduced by 4%);