Trucks & Barges

What is it about?

Trucks and Barges is a single-player game with group competition. The game simulates a logistics service provider (LSP) that needs to assign containers to barges and trucks on a daily basis. The game consists of various types of rounds (game modes) in which the player can either manually plan the containers, use decision support from advanced planning algorithms, or create his/her own planning rules. The game consists of various predefined scenarios (varying in number of containers, container characteristics, and costs structures) that can be modified by a game master. The purpose of the game is to let players gain experience with transport planning under uncertainty, raise awareness about some of the trade-offs in anticipatory scheduling, and familiarize them with decision-support and automated planning. The game is designed to provide the player with insight into (i) a typical intermodal planning problem, (ii) the benefits and challenges in anticipatory scheduling, (iii) the benefits of decision support and automated planning rules, (iv) the complexity of the planning problem, and (v) the formalization of automated planning rules.