A national LTL (less-than-truckload) carrier was experiencing a high number of empty truck miles – well above the industry norms. This number was attributed to a subpar linehaul operating plan. We used our HaulPLAN® software product to create an optimal line-haul plan and considerably reduced the carrier’s empty miles.
A linehaul operating plan is central to an LTL carrier’s operation since it dictates the movement of shipments, tractors, trailers and drivers over its linehaul network. Determining an optimal linehaul operating plan is a very large-scale optimization problem which involves selecting the best choice out of billions of potential options.
Towne Air Freight had a very high percentage of empty truck miles – well above the industry average – and attributed this to a non-optimal linehaul operating plan. The carrier had been growing rapidly with its operating plan evolving incrementally. It needed a clean slate (or green field) study, in which a new linehaul operating plan is generated from scratch by building upon the good components of the previous plan. The carrier hired Optym for this project to construct this study.
