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Research project

Sixth Sense Transport: Reducing/re-distributing transport options through a flexible interpretation of time

Project overview

The 6th Sense Transport project explored the transport and business opportunities that may be gained by improving the temporal and spatial visibility of transport using Smartphones.

TRG worked with Oxfam in this research, giving their collection/delivery vehicles and clothing/book banks (the latter equipped with remote monitoring sensors) the properties of a channel within a social network (as in Facebook or Twitter). This enabled them to transmit data about their status, receive data about possible opportunities and carry information for others in the network, so enabling better travel and transport decisions to be made.

A Smartphone app was developed to help Oxfam staff to improve the efficiency of their logistics processes. A main interest for TRG was in how such new ‘visualisations’ of vehicle, bank and shop status given to Oxfam staff (drivers, area managers, shop managers) might enable more effective localised decision making to save time/fuel and lead to more reactive stock management.

Staff

Lead researchers

Professor Tom Cherrett

Head of Department

Research interests

  • Understanding and improving the distribution of goods and the management of freight vehicles in urban areas, including the supply of goods to hospitals and the use of consolidation centres; 
  • How optimisation techniques can be used to improve system efficiency and in what ways Intelligent Transport Systems (smart tagging of assets and the use of smartphones) can improve operating efficiency; 
  • Approaches to more effectively collect and manage the movement of waste in terms of both household domestic waste collection strategies, Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) management and joint domestic/commercial waste collection strategies. He has worked on a number of research projects in these specific areas: (Department for Transport grant PPAD 9/142/034, ‘Optimising vehicles undertaking waste collections' GR/S79626/01, SUE project 55 ‘Transport and Logistics'; EP/D043328/1, ‘Green Logistics'.
Connect with Tom

Email: [email protected]

Collaborating research institutes, centres and groups

Transportation Group

Our research focuses on the interactions between behaviour, infrastructure and operations and how they translate into transport policy and practice.

Research outputs

Developing a smartphone app to enhance Oxfam's supply chain visibility
T.J. Cherrett, Duncan Shingleton, Ben Norton, F.N. McLeod, Camille Forey, Janet Dickinson, Chris Winstanley, Nigel Davies, Chris Speed & Sarah Norgate, 2014, International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications
DOI: 10.1080/13675567.2014.980794
Type: article
Improving collection efficiency through remote monitoring of charity assets
F.N. McLeod, Gunes Erdogan, T.J. Cherrett, T. Bektas, Nigel Davies, Duncan Shingleton, Chris Speed, Janet Dickinson & Sarah Norgate, 2014, Waste Management, 34(2), 273-280
DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2013.11.006
Type: article
The missing dimension
Sarah H. Norgate, Nigel Davies, Chris Speed, Tom Cherrett & Janet Dickinson, 2014, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 37(1), 93-94
DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X13001829
Type: review
Matheuristics for solving a multi-attribute collection problem for a charity organisation
G. Erdogan, F.N. McLeod, T.J. Cherrett & T. Bektas, 2013, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 66(2), 177-190
DOI: 10.1057/jors.2013.172
Type: article
Understanding temporal rhythms and travel behaviour at destinations
Janet E. Dickinson, Viachaslau Filimonau, Tom Cherrett, Nigel Davies, Sarah Norgate, Chris Speed & Chris Winstanley, 2013, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 21(7), 1070-1090
DOI: 10.1080/09669582.2013.802328
Type: article