Distribution System with Flow Consolidation at the Boundary of Urban Congested Areas

Serban Raicu, Dorinela Costescu and Stefan Burciu
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Serban Raicu: Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Transport, Traffic and Logistics Department, Splaiul Independentei 313, 060042 Bucharest, Romania
Dorinela Costescu: Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Transport, Traffic and Logistics Department, Splaiul Independentei 313, 060042 Bucharest, Romania
Stefan Burciu: Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Transport, Traffic and Logistics Department, Splaiul Independentei 313, 060042 Bucharest, Romania

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-17

Abstract: This paper presents effective and efficient solutions for components of urban logistics. The specificity of such logistics and the multiple limitations led to particular solutions. However, they all share one common feature—the flow consolidation in different variants. This study considers the flow consolidation at the boundary of urban congested areas, through horizontal collaboration between logistic platforms. This way, the urban distribution centers (UDCs) receive all the goods according to the orders addressed to each producer (or group in case of “on-going consolidations”). Deliveries are addressed to a single logistic platform. Thus, the flow consolidation is achieved. Each logistic platform receives part of the consumer goods intended for commercialization, but through collaboration between them (freight exchanges), all the warehouses of the producers have all the ordered goods. Dedicated management of logistics platforms and warehouses within each UDC ensures the confidentiality of distributor data. Three scenarios are presented concerning the same pattern of flow addressed to each UDC. These scenarios differ by the accessibility of the logistics platforms and by the connection between them (due to infrastructure development). The methodology of choosing the variants for composing the flow sent from each logistics platform considered the minimization of transfer times to UDC warehouses. Synthetic indicators allow for comparison between the analyzed scenarios.

Keywords: Collaborative logistics; urban distribution centers; flow consolidation schemes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:3:p:990-:d:314472

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