Transport vehicle system

A transport vehicle system comprising:

• a plurality of transport vehicles configured to travel along a route set in advance in one direction and to transport an article;
• a plurality of stations provided along the route and configured to serve as a loading request source for the article;
• and
• a controller configured to assign a transport instruction each time a loading request for the article occurs, the transport instruction designating a station being one of the plurality of stations having the loading request as a movement destination with respect to the transport vehicle capable of reaching the station having the loading request earliest,
• wherein the controller
• executes an exchange determination determining whether a second transport vehicle is present upstream of a first transport vehicle, the first transport vehicle being one of the plurality of transport vehicles assigned with a transport instruction that designates a first station being one of the plurality of stations as a movement destination, and the second transport vehicle being one of the plurality of transport vehicles different from the first transport vehicle and assigned with a transport instruction designating a second station being one of the plurality of stations disposed downstream of the first station as a movement destination, and
• executes an exchange control exchanging the movement destination of the transport instruction for the first transport vehicle and the movement destination of the transport instruction for the second transport vehicle assigned before the exchange determination with each other when determining that the second transport vehicle is present upstream of the first transport vehicle;
• wherein the exchange determination by the controller determines whether the second transport vehicle capable of starting a transfer operation at the first station while the first transport vehicle is performing a transfer operation at the second station is present when the movement destination of the transport instruction for the first transport vehicle and the movement destination of the transport instruction for the second transport vehicle assigned before the exchange determination are exchanged with each other.