Application area

Car rental

Pachon et al. (2003, 2006) set the basic fleet management modelling framework, with a hierarchical and streamlined perspective on these management challenges: deciding on the fleet size and mix of vehicles, their acquisition, and their deployment throughout the network of locations. In Fink and Reiners (2006) a core and realistic approach to deciding on fleet size and mix is proposed, considering real-world constraints including multi-periods, a country-wide network and vehicle groups with partial substitutability (i.e. allowing upgrades, the common business practice in the sector of offering a more valued vehicle for the price of a less valued vehicle). Also on the revenue management framework, relevant works have studied the particularities of this sector (Guerriero and Olivito 2014, Haensel et al. 2012). To the best of our knowledge, only Madden and Russel (2013) have attempted to link pricing with fleet management issues, even though in a very simplified way.

Car sharing

Jorge and Correia (2013) review methods and identify gaps concerning demand estimation in car sharing. The authors highlight the difficulty to accurately model demand in these contexts, especially in the case of emerging one-way systems, where the need to balance fleet and demand is critical. They also identify a clear gap in most works due to a limitation in scope for methodology simplification purposes. Fan et al. (2008) is also a relevant study, focused on the deployment of vehicles among locations and time periods for car sharing systems, on a dynamic real-time perspective. In Shaheen (2013) and Shaheen et al. (2009), recent developments in this field are explored and future directions drawn.

Integration of pricing and fleet management

In both sectors, the potential of integrating pricing and fleet management is significant and recognized by recent works, yet it is not fully developed. In addition, in both sectors important requirements that make the research applicable in practice are not yet considered (e.g. considering one-way trips in car sharing or upgrades in car rental).