PhD Studentship: Choice-modelling based booking controls for urban car sharing networks

Application details
Reference number: SBE-WJDL19
Start date of studentship: 1 October 2019
Closing date of advert: 22 February 2019

Supervisors:
Primary supervisor: Dr Wendy Jiao
Secondary supervisor: Dr Dong Li

Loughborough University
This project provides students an opportunity to investigate the sharing economy – in particular car sharing from the operational research perspective. The student will interact directly with industrial car sharing companies to understand the operational challenges in this industry. They will also have the chance to test the proposed solution approaches in practice and could make a real impact. The supervisors have many years of relevant research and working experience in revenue management and fleet management. Through the study the student is expected to be equipped with rich operational research techniques, strong analytical and problem-solving skills. These skills open the door for careers beyond the PhD study, such as academic faculty positions, consultants, and senior analysts in financial institutions.

Loughborough University is a top-ten rated university in England for research intensity (REF2014). In choosing Loughborough for your research, you’ll work alongside academics who are leaders in their field. You will benefit from comprehensive support and guidance from our Doctoral College, including tailored careers advice, to help you succeed in your research and future career.
Find out more: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/supporting-you/research/

Full Project Detail
Urban car sharing schemes provide flexible, affordable and green mobility services where customers can pick-up a car from one station and return it to the same or a different station.

Unlike traditional rental services, car sharing customers can drive the car by minutes and they can extend the usage on the road. However, this flexibility renders a significant operational challenge, fleet unbalance between multiple rental outlets. In practices many operators send out their staff to drive cars to rebalance the fleet, which is however an unsustainable solution as the labour cost is normally high in big cities where they operate. In this study, we adopt a customer-driven method and use them as “hidden employees” by offering cost incentives for alternative routes. Choice modelling is used to determine the provision of options and the corresponding cost incentives.

Such problems cannot be solved by standard approaches such as stochastic dynamic
programming (DP). One promising technique is the approximation DP that decomposes the
original problem into multiple subproblems that are much easier to solve. Their solutions are then
assembled to derive a solution to the original problem. If properly decomposed and assembled,
the derived solution can be of high quality.
Find out more: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/sbe/study/phd/

Entry requirements
UK Masters degree (average programme mark of no less than 65%) or International equivalent. English Language requirement of IELTS band 7.0 or above with not less than 7.0 in each component.

Contact details
Name: Dr Wendy Jiao
Email address: [Email Address Removed]

Name: Dr Dong Li
Email address: [Email Address Removed]

How to apply
All applications should be made online at http://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/apply/research/. Under programme name, select Business School

Please quote reference number: SBE-WJDL19