Evaluating Synergy in Auctioned Customer Bundles for Transportation Carriers

In this study, we investigate the concept of calculating the bundle synergy factor for carriers participating in a customer auction via a coalition pool. We introduce a new mathematical model to evaluate the synergy of an auctioned bundle of customers, taking into consideration pre-existing customers and carrier's depot. The developed model is based on a function that takes into account the travel times and customer weights. To demonstrate the applicability of our approach, a proof-of-concept study is conducted on an illustrative example to analyze the key features of the proposed model.