Queuing application for toll plaza staffing optimization
Date
2017
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Traffic at toll plazas can be very troublesome for drivers, especially during
peak travel times such as Thanksgiving week. Peak travel times can be very
troublesome for toll plazas as well, making it difficult to properly staff in order to get
vehicles through quickly and safely. This research has organized transaction data for
both electronic toll collection (ETC) and manual toll collection (MTC) for the I-95
Newark Toll Plaza in Newark, Delaware to define hourly arrival rates during a four
day period during Thanksgiving week in 2015. The arrival rates were input into a
queuing model to determine a number of servers needed to operate the plaza in a
manner that keeps maximum queues at defined acceptable lengths. The number of
servers needed per hour was optimized in a model to minimize the total workforce on
a daily basis for the toll plaza. Various scheduling varieties were explored to
determine the most effective staffing method possible.
Description
Keywords
Applied sciences, Delaware, Optimization, Queue, Queuing, Staffing, Toll plaza