Real-Time, Wide Area Dispatch of Mobil Tank Trucks

Mobil Oil Corporation has adopted a completely integrated, highly automated, real-time computer system for centralized control of distribution to customers in the continental United States of light petroleum products—gasolines, diesel, heating oil, and so forth. This system manages all aspects of marketing and distribution, from order entry via an audio response computer through credit checking, delivery, and billing—operations that annually generate $4 billion in sales on 600,000 customer orders and that use 120 bulk terminals and a fleet of more than 430 vehicles. The heart of this system is computer assisted dispatch (CAD), a collection of integer programming methods used within a real-time, transaction-driven information management system, which allots about one second, on average, per dispatch for optimization. CAD exploits the experience and knowledge of the human dispatchers it assists. Using CAD, Mobil has substantially reduced costs and staff while improving customer service.