A team of researchers from Erasmus University Rotterdam and ORTEC has been honoured with the Transportation Science Journal Paper of the Year Award for their groundbreaking study “Managing Concurrent Interactions in Online Time Slot Booking Systems for Attended Home Delivery”. The paper is authored by Dr Remy Spliet (Erasmus School of Economics), Prof. Niels Agatz (Rotterdam School of Management, and Dr Thomas R. Visser (ORTEC).
Recognising excellence in transportation research
The award recognises outstanding contributions published in Transportation Science, a leading bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). The journal is internationally recognised for publishing research that applies operations research techniques to critical challenges across transportation sectors, including air travel, rail transport, commuter systems, and vehicular traffic management.
Shaping the future of online delivery
The winning paper addresses a pressing issue in the rapidly expanding field of attended home delivery: how to manage online booking systems when multiple customers interact concurrently. As more consumers shop online for groceries, furniture, and essential services, retailers face the challenge of ensuring delivery slot availability without creating conflicts or inefficiencies.
Spliet, Agatz, and Visser have developed a concurrency control framework that allows delivery providers to offer customers fast, reliable booking experiences while optimising fleet capacity. Their research introduces innovative background optimisation procedures that anticipate customer demand in real time, ultimately increasing the number of valid bookings and reducing delivery failures.
‘Our work highlights the importance of accounting for concurrent customer interactions in online booking systems, a problem that is growing with the scale of e-commerce,’ says Associate Professor Remy Spliet. ‘We are honoured that Transportation Science has recognised this research, co-funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), ORTEC, and AH.nl, as one of the most impactful studies of the year.’
- More information
For more information, please contact Ronald de Groot, Media & Public Relations Officer at Erasmus School of Economics: rdegroot@ese.eur.nl, mobile +31 6 53 641 846.
