Decentralized Method in Ride-sourcing Reposition Decision-making Process
K. Cui (TU Delft - Civil Engineering & Geosciences)
O. Cats – Mentor (TU Delft - Transport and Planning)
Sh Sharif Azadeh – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Transport and Planning)
A.J.F. de Ruijter – Coach (TU Delft - Transport and Planning)
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Abstract
Efficient repositioning strategies for idle vehicles in ride-sourcing systems help reduce passengers' waiting time and drivers' operational costs, which help platforms attract more passengers and drivers. In this paper, we propose a decentralized repositioning strategy for drivers, in which drivers make individual decisions on where they reposition themselves, based on their own experiences. In comparison to an existing centralized repositioning strategy, in which drivers comply with reposition instructions provided by the platform, we examine the effects of the decentralized strategy on service rate, passengers' waiting time and drivers' net income. We compare the reposition strategies under different supply and demand levels and different demand spatial distribution dispersion rates. We also explore the influence of platform information on drivers' decision-making process.
We found that decentralized repositioning strategies have better performance in reducing waiting time, while the centralized strategy is better at increasing driver income and service rate. We also found that when platform information is accessible, the system has the best performance when 20% to 60% proportion of drivers utilize platform information when making decisions.