TACTICAL PLANNING OF RADIAL JOURNEYS

The following two papers were presented at the Oyez/IBC conference on “The Computer in Road Transport Planning” held in London in September. The conference addressed itself to various questions relating to the function of the computer in this field: why use a computer at all? How much money will it save, if any? How do you put the new systems into service? What are the implications for the company as a whole? Will it maintain or improve service levels, and how flexible are the systems currently available? The first paper, by Harry O'Brien, deals specifically with the load planning function. There is a resumé of this function and its objectives, a discussion of the respective roles of the load planner and computer, and a development of this theme by asking about the further possible role for computers now that they are interactive.