Dynamic matching radius decision model for on-demand ride services: A deep multi-task learning approach

As ride-hailing services have experienced significant growth, most research has concentrated on the dispatching mode, where drivers must accept the platform's assigned trip requests. However, the broadcasting mode, in which drivers can freely choose their preferred orders from those broadcast by the platform, has received less attention. One crucial but challenging task in such a system is the determination of the matching radius, which usually varies across space, time, and real-time supply/demand characteristics. This study develops a Deep Learning-based Matching Radius Decision (DL-MRD) model that predicts key system performance metrics for a range of matching radii, which enables the ride-hailing platform to select an optimal matching radius that maximizes overall system performance according to real-time supply and demand information. To simultaneously maximize multiple system performance metrics for matching radius determination, we devise a novel multi-task learning algorithm named Weighted Exponential Smoothing Multi-task (WESM) learning strategy that enhances convergence speed of each task (corresponding to the optimization of one metric) and delivers more accurate overall predictions. We evaluate our methods in a simulation environment designed for broadcasting-mode-based ride-hailing service. Our findings reveal that dynamically adjusting matching radii based on our proposed approach significantly improves system performance. © 2024 Elsevier Ltd