Quantifying the value of advance load information in truckload trucking

We present an optimization-based computational study to quantify the relative benefits and costs of sharing advance load information and preparing an advance pick-up and delivery plan (or preplanning) in load assignment problems in truckload trucking. Considering that the benefits of preplanning comes in many intangible forms, we take the strategy of showing the cost differences between preplanning and different forms of dispatching, instead of computing the benefits directly. Computational study under several settings not only shows the benefit of using advanced load information, but also uncovers the minimal cost difference between intelligent preplanning and the best performing dispatching policies.