Campervan travelling on the Great Ocean Road, Victoria

Holiday maths makes for happy campers

Reference: 08/01

Holidaymakers are touring Australia this January thanks to some military maths getting them the campervan they want, when and where they need it.

• 7 January 2008

CSIRO specialists in maths called ‘operations research’ have developed a scheduling system for several campervan rental companies that schedules bookings in real time so that rental companies can provide the best service for customers at lower cost.

Better vehicle scheduling reduces operating costs by around 5 per cent and makes sure optimal use is made of the vehicle fleet at any time.

Andreas Ernst of CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences said that family holidays can be a bit like a military exercise, with all the effort required to get booked, packed and away.

“Conveniently, operations researchers like us can use mathematics that was developed in World War II to help. It was used then to schedule the deployment of limited military people and vehicles in the most effective way,” he said.

“That maths, coupled with advanced computing, provides a very effective solution for a complex problem – how to help thousands of holidaymakers get where they want to go at a peak time of year.”

Customers need to be matched with their choice of a limited number of vehicles of various kinds in the place they need for the dates they need. Rental companies want to reduce the number of vehicle substitutions and relocations, where say a campervan in Darwin might be needed in Adelaide, as it costs them money. The CSIRO system satisfies these constraints quickly and reliably.

When a booking request is made, the system quickly compares the many possible options of fulfilling it at least cost while meeting the customers needs, and selects the best one.

This optimisation happens on a continuous basis. The system dynamically assesses if new bookings can be accepted, re-schedules the fleet and allocates vehicles to customers.

CSIRO is upgrading the scheduling system and a new version will be ready early in 2008.

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