Pickup and delivery routing with hub transshipment across flexible time periods for improving dual objectives on workload and waiting time

Yon-Chun Chou, Yao-Hung Chen and Hui-Min Chen

Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 2014, vol. 61, issue C, 98-114

Abstract: In contrast to developing routing algorithms, operational policy design of courier services is addressed in this paper with the objective of reducing both courier workload and customer waiting time. A square root law of tour length is verified, extending the literature. A new policy of hub transshipment across flexible time periods is evaluated by mean-value analysis of stochastic routing. Boundary conditions on arrival rate, territory size and transshipment probability in which the new policy outperforms a traditional periodical routing policy are derived. Finally, the effectiveness of the new policy is demonstrated by applying to a large hospital case.

Keywords: Pickup and delivery routing; Transshipment; Policy design; Flexible time period; Stochastic routing analysis; Multiple objectives (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.tre.2013.11.005

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