The truck-shovel dispatching problem is formulated as an integer programming problem in this study
to determine the best truck assignment to shovels. The optimal number of truck that should be used
during a shift is obtained analytically taking advantage of the dispatching result. With the goal of meeting
production target with minimum truck operating cost, the dispatching result using the proposed method is
compared with that from fixed truck assignment policy. The results show that a 15.65% reduction of truck
operating cost is achieved in the studied case. Further analysis reveals that this cost decrease is mainly
resulted from reduction in distance travelled by empty trucks. In addition, the experiments of
heterogeneous fleet indicate that properly mixed fleets can leads to further operating cost reductions