Transportation Service Procurement Bid Construction Problem from Less Than Truckload Perspective

This paper presents mixed integer programming for a transportation service procurement bid construction problem from a less than full truckload perspective, in which the bidders (carriers) generate their best bid (package) using a bundled price to maximize their utility and increase the chance of winning the business. The models are developed from both the carriers and shippers perspectives to establish a relationship between the quoted price and the likelihood of winning to assist the carriers in balancing the potential benefits and the possibility of winning the bid. An intelligent algorithm based on Particle Swarm Optimization is then designed to solve the proposed model and hypothetical data sets are used to test the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed model and algorithm.