Fast synergy approximation in transportation procurement with combinatorial auctions

In this study we develop a decision support tool to help carriers in defining their bids when participating in transportation combinatorial auctions. In this way, they can avoid many of their empty movements and ensure additional business through the spot market. We propose four algorithms that quantify the synergy as a key concept to measure the complementarity between the carrier’s existing network and the contracts to be included in the bundle to be submitted as a bid. The algorithms are validated on a real-life application and our results emphasized their superiority with respect to previous studies.