Delivering in urban areas: a dynamic approach to utility and choice updating enhanced by emerging technologies

This paper focuses on smart delivery and, in particular, on models to develop smart path advisory systems which, in providing route suggestions, take into account real-time and past states of the road network and the preferences of truck drivers. This work allows one to unify the advances in transport systems and emerging information and communication technologies (e-ICT), having the sustainability problem as a priority goal. The paper examines the choice process of truck drivers when conducting deliveries in an urban area. First, the general modeling framework is introduced. Then, a path cost updating model is recalled, and, subsequently, a dynamic choice updating model is formalized, which can be directly applied in the case of a given and defined choice set of alternatives. It is developed within the approach of sequential analysis.