PUTTING PLANNING INTO ACTION
Formulated models and software analysis
Throughout our time researching and being a part of conversation over at Veritread, we were able to produce our own findings to increase our total understanding. Taking the information we researched in addition to the data provided to create formulas and statistical analysis that could be used in future applications. Functions were created as a team and peer-reviewed by fellow professors and colleagues as to verify their validity. The RStudio software was elected to handle the data that was provided in addition to the new data generated by the formulas. Primary factors we took into consideration were accessibility, usability, and software integration, which thus led us to picking RStudio.
PRODUCING A FORMULA
For this project we started by creating a formula that would allow us to find the amount of carbon that would be released into the air per load.The Story
D = Distance shipment has traveled (in miles)
W = The weight of the total shipment
E = The emission factor of the truck (truck model specific)
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USAGE OF RSTUDIO
The analysis that took place involved exploring the data provided in much greater detail to understand the types of variables that we’re working with. Since the data is mainly composed of numerical values, it makes defining what analysis is found difficult to label in a way that the consumers for Veritread will understand. Veritread is looking to be more carbon aware and implement that within their current platform; so with that in mind, the data needs to be portrayed in real-time with the ability to understand what the data is saying. Using the formulas that we were able to come up with the above, additional data manipulation was implemented to add a few more columns. These columns included data on total carbon emissions in tons and adjusting the MPG of the flatbed vehicles per total load weight.
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Previously, our group had worked with RStudio when describing the data that Veritread provided us. This time around we wanted to be more application hands-on, implementing the formula we were able to come up with into a practical setting so that the client-base could understand. We have outlined much of this in the next section, Analysis, where we discuss the reasoning behind our decisions and what results have come from it. When we were first assigned this, we thought the first step should be to take an initiative towards creating an accurate formula measuring total carbon emissions. The purpose of this was to quantify the total carbon emissions being let off into the atmosphere so that we may later be able to implement a price point on said total amount. We firstly needed to clean the data and then use that cleaned data to test the accuracy of our formula. Through reverse implementation, are we able to come up with the same results found in the data and does it make logistical sense? To keep everything organized, we sought to create a graph of what steps we would look to adhere to as the development cycle extends throughout the semesters. 10 Since there was a loss in our Computer Science division for this assignment, some of the implementation surrounding the application side of this project has run into difficulties that we had to work around with.
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ELECTRIC FLEET HAULING
Benefit Cost Analysis
As Veritread wants to move closer to being carbon neutral, and make their customers away of the carbon that enters the air from their fleets, our team decided to look at the benefits and costs of running a fleet. What we did was look at two types of fleets first the regular gas fleet and then a totally electric fleet. We did research on the; Cost of Semi-Truck, Cost of Fuel Semi-Truck, Cost of Maintenance on Semi-Truck, and Salary of Truck Driver for the costs of the regular gas fleet while the costs are the Cost of the Electric Semi-Truck - The Price of the Regular Truck. Then we researched the same values for the cost of the electric this time the benefits being the amount of money this fleet would save on fuel. Note that all that both future values are negative because this doesn’t account for the profit they would make from these trucks. These are just the raw costs and the benefits from the fuel types they are using.
Cost of a fleet of ten trucks that use conventional fuel
Cost of a fleet of ten trucks that are EVs
Cost of a fleet of ten trucks that use conventional fuel