Reducing Labor Costs in an LTL Crossdocking Terminal

Handling freight in a crossdocking terminal is labor-intensive, and therefore costly, because workers must unload, sort, and transfer a wide variety of freight from incoming to outgoing trailers. The eÆciency of workers depends, in large part, on how trailers are assigned to doors around the dock; that is, on its layout. A good layout reduces travel distances without creating congestion, but, until now, no tools have been available to construct such layouts. We describe models of travel cost and three types of congestion typically experienced in crossdocking terminals; and we use them to construct layouts that minimize the labor cost of transferring freight. We report on the use of our models in the less-thantruckload trucking industry, including an implementation at a terminal in Stockton, CA that improved productivity by more than 11 percent.