The Academic Minute

On this Student Spotlight: Al-Qaida may be exploiting a weakness in an African state in crisis. Sara Harmouch, doctoral candidate in justice, law and criminology at American University, explores how. Sara Harmouch is the founder and CEO of H9 Defense and a doctoral candidate at American University’s School of Public Affairs. Growing up in Lebanon, […]

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LGBTQ children’s books are now on the shelves, but do they tell the full story? Wendy Keyser, professor of English at Fitchburg State University, says there is more to explore. Wendy Keyser taught high school English for 21 years, primarily in Massachusetts public schools. She is a professor of English Studies in the 5-12 teaching […]

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Who is to blame for slowing the transition to a low carbon energy future? David Spence, Rex G. Baker Chair in Natural Resources Law at the University of Texas School of Law, and Professor of Business, Government & Society at the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business, has some ideas. David Spence […]

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There’s still a lot to learn and understand about early settlements in Texas. Francis Galan, associate professor of history at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, sheds some light on the complexities of Spanish settlements in the state. Francis Galán is an Associate Professor of History at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, where he teaches in the College […]

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Bottled water can be a panacea during a crisis, but it can also worsen inequality afterwards. Daniel Jaffee, associate professor of sociology at Portland State University, explores why. Daniel Jaffee is an environmental and rural sociologist and Associate Professor of Sociology at Portland State University. His research examines conflicts over water privatization and commodification; the […]

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On this Student Spotlight: The extinction of the dinosaurs is still being studied. Kyle Atkins, PhD student in ecology at Oklahoma State University, explores a new finding that can change our understanding of the event. I am a PhD student interested in the ecology of terrestrial environments at the very end of the age of […]

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Some love a song; others can’t stand it.  But why? Jane Kuehne, assistant professor of music education at Auburn University, has this music theory. Dr. Jane M. Kuehne is Associate Professor of Music Education and Graduate Program Officer in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching in the College of Education at Auburn University (in Alabama). […]

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The colors in your personal spaces could have a big impact on your mood. Niusha Jones, assistant professor of marketing at the College of Business and Economics at Boise State University, explores why. Dr. Niusha Jones is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the College of Business and Economics at Boise State University. Niusha’s academic […]

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Some places get more than others, but lightning is always dangerous. Chris Vagasky, research program manager at the University of Wisconsin, explores this natural phenomenon. Chris Vagasky is the manager of the Wisconsin Environmental Mesonet, a growing network of weather and soil monitoring stations in the state of Wisconsin. He is an active member of […]

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Delivery drivers don’t have it easy when it comes to parking, so how can we improve this?

Ann Melissa Campbell, Clement T. and Sylvia H. Hanson Family Chair in Manufacturing productivity and professor of business analytics at the University of Iowa, looks into it.

Faculty Bio:

Ann Melissa Campbell’s research focuses on freight transportation, especially on problems related to new and emerging business models, as well as the logistics of disaster preparation and relief. She is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award and serves as an Area Editor for Transportation Science. As department chair, she led the efforts of the Tippie College of Business’ Department of Business Analytics to win the 2021 INFORMS UPS George D. Smith Prize for excellence in analytics education. Since 2022, she has chaired the annual FutureBAProf workshop focused on improving diversity in business analytics academic positions.

Transcript:

Anyone who’s ever spent time in a big city has found themselves stuck in traffic, surrounded by delivery vehicles. How can we get the products we order delivered to us on-time with fewer delivery trucks on the road and the traffic they cause?

This is the question we considered in our latest study.

Delivery companies develop sophisticated algorithms to decide what customers should be visited by which drivers, and the order that delivery drivers should visit these customers. These algorithms, however, don’t consider parking.

It can be useful, for example, to recommend a driver park in a certain area and visit a prescribed set of customers on foot from that parking spot. Our algorithm does just this – it recommends parking spots for drivers, telling them where to park and which customers to visit on foot from that parking spot.

We found that this strategic consideration of parking becomes particularly important in areas where it takes a long time to park. This is the case in most urban environments, where the current average time to park is 9 minutes.

In these situations, the answer is for the driver to park fewer times and walk more. If the parking time is high enough, the solutions can suggest that driver deliver a set of packages from a parking spot and return to that parking spot to get more packages and walk again rather than drive.

We tested our idea using data from Chicago. We calculated delivery time could be cut by about 50 percent if companies designed routes that strategically consider parking, which means drivers can make twice as many deliveries during a day.

If drivers can make twice as many deliveries, we need only half the number of trucks on the road and traffic can be reduced so we can get to where we want to go more quickly.

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