Decision support methodology for the selection of a transportation scheme of international timber transportation

The cross-border timber transportation process is expensive and difficult to arrange. Transportation is a main operation performed in the process of export. The transportation cost directly affects the economic efficiency of this type of activity. Reducing transport costs will help reduce the international timber transportation cost, which in turn will lead to significant cost savings that are relevant in the current economic crisis. This is especially important for small enterprises operating in the border areas that export timber by automobile transport. Analysis of scientific research in the international timber transportation field has shown that there is no single algorithm to support the decision making procedure in order to increase its efficiency and reduce economic costs. The author of this article proposes a decision support methodology for the selection of a transportation scheme of international timber transportation. The set-theoretical model is a base and part of the methodology. The methodology allows us to perform the following: selection of the transportation model and types of vehicles; selection of trucks characteristics; choice of alternative transportation modes; spatial layout of the intermediate yards and sites; operating parameters of border crossing points; logging trucks routing and transportation planning; transportation capacity. This methodology includes the following blocks: collection and processing of initial data, simulation of various schemes of the transport-technological international timber transportation process, processing of simulation results, the most cost-effective transportation scheme selection. The developed methodology includes a simulation of international timber transportation performed in the AnyLogic PLE computer simulation environment. The main task of the model is to imitate various wood transportation schemes to a foreign consumer taking into account the maximum number of factors affecting the transportation process. The methodology approbation showed the possibility to reduce transport costs when exporting timber by road by 30%.