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In some developing countries, vehicles are often over‐loaded, which causes road accidents and damage to road surfaces. Currently, large measuring facilities are used to measure the vehicle‐loading on highways. A major limitation is that they can measure vehicle‐loading at fixed locations only. This paper seeks to present an on‐vehicle loading measurement system with capacitance and acceleration transducers.

A description and analysis of the system are presented.

The capacitance transducers sense the variation in distance between electrodes, using the on‐vehicle leaf springs as weighing elastomers. The acceleration transducers deal with the influence of acceleration to vehicle‐loading measurement. The major advantage of this system over the existing systems is that both static and dynamic loading can be measured.

This system is simple and easy to install.

The paper shows that with this system both a driver and an inspector can check vehicle‐loading at any time and any location through radio communication, thus identifying over‐loaded vehicles on highways.

Continual rising fuel costs and rapidly increasing vehicle costs have generated management awareness of the costs incurred in physical distribution. Inevitably, management attention on the distribution function is drawn towards potential cost savings and increases in efficiency. Where transport costs represent a significant part of the total distibution costs, then one area which determines the efficiency of all others is the vehicle routing and scheduling activity which could collectively be known as load planning.

This study aims to investigate the effect of time-varying passenger flow on the wheel wear of metro vehicles to provide a more accurate model for predicting wheel wear and a new idea for reducing wheel wear.

Sectional passage flow data were collected from an operational metro line. A wheel wear simulation based on time-varying passenger flow was performed via the SIMPACK software to obtain the worn wheel profile and wear distribution. The simulation involves the following models: vehicle system dynamics model, wheel-track rolling contact model, wheel wear model and variable load application model. Later, the simulation results were compared with those obtained under the traditional constant load condition and the measured wear data.

For different distances traveled by the metro vehicle, the simulated wheel profile and wear distribution under the variable load remained closer to the measurements than those obtained under the constant load. As the distance traveled increased, the depth and position of maximum wear and wear growth rate under the variable load tended to approach the corresponding measured values. In contrast, the simulation results under the constant load differed greatly from the measured values. This suggests that the model accuracy under the variable load was significantly improved and the simulation results can offer a more accurate basis for wear prediction.

These results will help to predict wheel wear more accurately and provide a new idea for simulating wheel wear of metro vehicles. At the same time, measures for reducing wheel wear were discussed from the perspective of passenger flow changes.

Existing research on the wheel wear of metro vehicles is mainly based on the constant load condition, which is quite different from the variable load condition where the passenger flow in real vehicles varies over time. A method of simulating wheel wear based on time-varying load is proposed in this paper. The proposed method shows a great improvement in simulation accuracy compared to traditional methods and can provide a more accurate basis for wear prediction and wheel repair.

Although extensive research has been conducted on precast production, irregular component loading constraints have received little attention, resulting in limitations for transportation cost optimization. Traditional irregular component loading methods are based on past performance, which frequently wastes vehicle space. Additionally, real-time road conditions, precast component assembly times, and delivery vehicle waiting times due to equipment constraints at the construction site affect transportation time and overall transportation costs. Therefore, this paper aims to provide an optimization model for Just-In-Time (JIT) delivery of precast components considering 3D loading constraints, real-time road conditions and assembly time.

In order to propose a JIT (just-in-time) delivery optimization model, the effects of the sizes of irregular precast components, the assembly time, and the loading methods are considered in the 3D loading constraint model. In addition, for JIT delivery, incorporating real-time road conditions in the transportation process is essential to mitigate delays in the delivery of precast components. The 3D precast component loading problem is solved by using a hybrid genetic algorithm which mixes the genetic algorithm and the simulated annealing algorithm.

A real case study was used to validate the JIT delivery optimization model. The results indicated this study contributes to the optimization of strategies for loading irregular precast components and the reduction of transportation costs by 5.38%.

This study establishes a JIT delivery optimization model with the aim of reducing transportation costs by considering 3D loading constraints, real-time road conditions and assembly time. The irregular precast component is simplified into 3D bounding box and loaded with three-space division heuristic packing algorithm. In addition, the hybrid algorithm mixing the genetic algorithm and the simulated annealing algorithm is to solve the 3D container loading problem, which provides both global search capability and the ability to perform local searching. The JIT delivery optimization model can provide decision-makers with a more comprehensive and economical strategy for loading and transporting irregular precast components.

Preface The functions of business divide into several areas and the general focus of this book is on one of the most important although least understood of these—DISTRIBUTION. The particular focus is on reviewing current practice in distribution costing and on attempting to push the frontiers back a little by suggesting some new approaches to overcome previously defined shortcomings.

Increasing load factor is crucial for transport efficiency and may benefit shippers because of its potential to reduce both environmental impact and transportation costs. The purpose of this paper is to explore how shippers can increase load factor in their road transport by identifying opportunities for logistics action and influences on load factor performance measures created by such opportunities.

A case study is performed of the outgoing goods flow from the central warehouse of a large retailer in Sweden. Data are collected from interviews with the shipper and its contracted freight forwarder, as well as from archival sources and visual observations, and applied to produce a framework.

Logistics actions that can increase load factor are identified and categorised according to packaging efficiency, loading efficiency and booking efficiency, all of which are linked to logistics variables and specific performance measures in the framework. Visual observations of volumetric load factor in vehicles indicate room for improvement via, for example, making lead times more flexible.

The framework’s principles can be used to support shippers in finding opportunities to increase load factor.

The framework clarifies the concept of load factor as a whole by explaining each logistics action’s contribution to increasing load factor, as well as the actions’ combined effect in the context of a shipper and its purchased transport share.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a capacitance vehicle weighing device. The key part of this device is the capacitance vehicle weighing sensor. This paper discusses the static and dynamic performance test of capacitance vehicle weighing sensor with emphasis, and provides theoretical analysis, in order to provide the tests and theoretical basis for the popularization and application of the vehicle weighing device.

The paper gives an introduction to the weighing sensor in respects of the structure design and measuring principles, with the emphasis on the static and dynamic performance of the testing processes. Then, the paper provides the corresponding testing processes and data with theoretical analysis.

This weighing sensor can be applied to static as well as dynamic tests thus the capacitance vehicle weighing device is practical and worthy of promotion and popularization.

The capacitance vehicle weighing device is characterized by its simple structure, simple measuring circuits, strong reliability in anti‐interference, small size and low cost. The static performance is of little repetitive error, and the use of software may efficiently solve the problems of non‐linearity and hysteresis. In dynamic measurement, the speed, acceleration and vibration of the vehicle produce little effect on the result, which can be neglected, thus being able to overcome the disadvantages of the traditional weighing method which is of low speed and great errors.

In a modern business environment, employees are a key resource to a company. Hence, the competitiveness of a company depends largely on its ability to treat employees fairly. Fairness can be attained by using the load‐balancing methodology. Develops an integer programming model for vehicle routing problems. There are two objectives, first, to minimize the total distance, and second, to balance the workload among employees as much as possible. We also develop a heuristic algorithm to solve the problems. The findings show that the proposed heuristic algorithm performs well to our 11 test cases.