Evaluacion De Los Beneficios Potenciales De La Resolucion De Conflictos Operacionales Entre Despachadores Y Transportistas Terrestres

The purpose of this article is to analyze the main operational causes of conflict between shippers and carriers, and to evaluate the opportunity of improvement. We classify these problems according to whether they are related to the operations at the distribution centers, the configuration of routes, the contract clauses and the size of the fleet. Based on a transportation cost model, we present expressions for estimating the potential savings upon resolving those problems. We simulate several improvements for four different types of companies: a grocery delivery service that operates throughout the city of Santiago, a soft-drink deliverer that uses electric vans for the downtown area, a tanker service that operates between two distant facilities, and a hauling operation with very large trucks in an open-pit mine. We derive a number of managerial guidelines that could be more effective than any other capital-intensive approach method.