The Minimum Duration Truck Driver Scheduling Problem

Abstract

Truck driver scheduling problems are important subproblems of real-life vehicle routing and scheduling problems because rest periods required by government regulations have a significant impact on travel and arrival times. Vehicle routes generated without considering these regulations are often practically infeasible. This paper identifies common constraints imposed by hours of service regulations world wide and presents a mixed integer programming formulation for a variant of the truck driver scheduling problem in which truck drivers may only rest at customer locations and at suitable rest areas. The objective of the problem is to find a feasible truck driver schedule with minimal duration. The model presented in this paper is very flexible and can be configured to consider different sets of rules imposed by government regulations and union contracts. A dynamic programming approach is presented and its effectiveness is demonstrated for working hour regulations in the United States and in the European Union.