HOW THE LEAD TIME BEFORE SERVICING IS INFLUENCING THE COMPETITIVNESS OF AN AUTOMATED ON-DEMAND SHUTTLE: A CASE STUDY

Kurzfassung

A simulation study was employed to investigate the question of how an automated shuttle fleet can be sensibly parameterized in on-demand transport. The two main influencing parameters studied were lead time, which indicates the delay before starting the journey to the first demanding customer, and the number of shuttles to reach dedicated service levels. The operation should be able to replace a conventional bus route. In addition to passenger transport, the automated shuttles are also used to organize parcel delivery services. An innovative vehicle concept consisting of the drive unit and the exchangeable payload was used for this purpose. This paper examines the passenger transport use case, for which up to three shuttles will be available. The level of service that can be achieved with different operating logics was simulated. In terms of demand, a traffic count by the bus operator was used, although the shuttle service as a demonstrator will presumably generate different and additional demand. Based on the analyzed scenarios, the times for which a shuttle should wait before serving the first incoming demand can be estimated in order to balance bundling effects and total waiting times for passengers and to characterize the overall service quality.