Optimizing Rental Vehicles

Client: Tourism Holdings Limited (THL), parent company of Britz campervan rentals

Rental car companies, and campervan companies such as THL, face a difficult problem each time they allocate a car to a customer: how to ensure that each customer receives a satisfactory vehicle? CSIRO has built two systems - VASS and D-VASS - to solve the problem.

The system uses vehicle assignment, relocation and substitution to allow more bookings to be accepted and at the same time improve the client's profitability and the satisfaction of their customers.

Relocation

In the holiday market served by THL, many bookings are one-way - vehicles end up in a different city to where they started.

But with all these vehicles moving about, how does the company make sure that there are sufficient vehicles at each location to meet the demand? And if there are not sufficient vehicles, is it possible to "relocate" one from somewhere else? Because of the time element, this decision can be quite complicated - perhaps I have to do a "shuffle" moving between a couple of locations at different times to cover the demand.

VASS takes the guess-work out and solves this problem by finding the best relocation schedule. It will find the relocations that cost the very least in order to meet the bookings that have already been accepted.

Substitution

Another problem arises because the most rental car companies offer a wide variety of vehicle types, but the demand for each type does not always match the numbers on hand. So the company must make substitutions - usually by offering a customer a better quality vehicle at the same price.

But how do I decide which vehicle should go to which customer? And when should I consider a relocation to satisfy a customer versus a substitution of a vehicle different type?

VASS once again solves this problem by producing a schedule of vehicle allocations that minimizes the overall cost of relocations and substitutions, including a notional cost for the dissatisfaction of customers who do not receive the car they were expecting.

Optimal solution

VASS solves the problem mathematically. In most cases this means that the solution it provides is optimal - it is the absolute least cost solution for the data that is presented.

Dynamic Operation

D-VASS is an extension to the VASS system that allows for continuous, dynamic operation. It is a module that is incorporated into the main bookings and reservation system. It maintains a schedule and is able to answer the query "is there a vehicle available for this tentative booking". This module is now used in THL's online reservations system.

The system is able to find quite complex changes to the schedule to incorporate a booking. By squeezing the most out of the vehicle fleet, we hope to be able to allow more bookings to be accepted and have a positive impact on the client's profitability.

Further Information

See our Fleet Dynamics flyer.

For more information about this project contact Andreas Ernst.

Last updated February 03, 2010 12:46 PM by Mark Horn