Flexibility in transportation procurement : a real options approach

Shippers who use for-hire carriers need a careful estimation of their need for trucking capacity in order to be able to haul products in a timely and cost-effective manner. This thesis outlines a flexible approach to transportation procurement. According to the proposed method, a shipper makes a firm commitment to a carrier to use a guaranteed level of capacity and agrees to pay a penalty for any unutilized equipment. In exchange, the carrier provides the shipper with an option to fulfill the shipper's request for additional capacity above the guaranteed level and up to a predermined limit if needed. The analysis focuses on actual data from a shipper and explores a "what if' scenario--whether it would have been possible to achieve savings and generate value by having such a flexible contract.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Zhelev, Georgi Zhelev, 1975-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Christopher Caplice.

• Engineering Systems Division.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/29530

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/29530