FreightLab

Freight transportation is the bridging function that manages the physical flow of raw materials and finished goods, and connects the company to its suppliers, customers, and the government through public infrastructure. As such, freight transportation is often used as the shock absorber for a company - insulating the core operations from external disruptions and variability.

In 2008, CTL launched the MIT FreightLab to drive innovation in the freight transportation industry. CTL believes that tackling large-scale complex systems will lead to breakthrough developments in a domain that has traditionally been addressed in operationally focused and fragmented ways. The FreightLab’s mission is to envision better ways to design, procure, and manage large-scale freight transportation systems.

FreightLab’s objectives are to develop innovations in freight transportation planning and operations and to drive them into practice. To do this, FreightLab works on a number of research projects with sponsoring companies and holds seminars, symposia, and conferences. Recent projects have included:

(*) Optimal Network Flow - Working with a leading retail restaurant chain, researchers explored how to leverage different distribution and flow channel configurations to lower the total cost, increase the level of service, and minimize the risk of disruption
(*) Transportation Portfolio Management - Working with Wal-Mart Stores, the research team designed and developed a planning tool for optimally determining how to use different transportation resources across a freight network. The optimization model considers the demand uncertainty in its lane assignment
(*) Transportation Pricing - A number of studies have been conducted to quantify the impact of various business policies on transportation pricing
(*) Fuel Cost Uncertainty - Fuel surcharges and hedging have been studied to understand the larger effects on transportation pricing and service
(*) Transportation Planning and Management Systems - FreightLab has conducted a number of analyses examining the gap between planning and execution systems
(*) Transportation Infrastructure - Working with both state and federal government transportation agencies, FreightLab has examined how to make transportation networks more resilient and how to design future freight networks

What are the key benefits?

For shippers, carriers, third parties, and government officials working in the freight transportation realm, the primary benefit is to understand how to improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the system.