Cross Dock Scheduling: Classification,Literature Review and Research Agenda

At cross docking terminals incoming deliveries of inbound trucks are unloaded,sorted, moved across the dock and nally loaded onto outboundtrucks, which immediately leave the terminal towards their next destinationin the distribution chain. Accordingly, a cross dock is a consolidationpoint in a distribution network, where multiple smaller shipments can bemerged to full truck loads in order to realize economies in transportation. Inthis context, the truck scheduling problem, which decides on the successionof truck processing at the dock doors, is especially important to ensure arapid turnover and on-time deliveries. Due to its high real-world signicance,several truck scheduling procedures have been introduced within the recentyears, which all treat specic cross dock settings. In order to structure andpromote scientic progress, the paper on hand introduces a classication ofdeterministic truck scheduling. With the help of this classication, existingliterature is reviewed and future research needs are identied. Moreover, werepresent a yet unexplored class of truck scheduling problems which is highlyrelevant in real-world distribution networks....