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Planning the city operations of a parcel express company

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  • Wu, Haotian
  • Savelsbergh, Martin
  • Huang, Yixiao

Abstract

We introduce an interesting and challenging routing and scheduling problem arising in the city operations of SF Express, a large package express carrier in China. Vehicles execute multiple trips during a planning horizon spanning multiple shifts, where a trip can involve deliveries only, pickups only, or deliveries followed by pickups. Complicating factors include split deliveries and pickups, cross-trip consistency requirements, and limited unloading capacity at the main hubs. We develop an optimization-based multi-phase heuristic solution approach seeking to minimize the number of vehicles used. An extensive computational study using real-world instances demonstrates the effectiveness of the approach.

Suggested Citation

  • Wu, Haotian & Savelsbergh, Martin & Huang, Yixiao, 2022. "Planning the city operations of a parcel express company," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jomega:v:107:y:2022:i:c:s0305048321001481
    DOI: 10.1016/j.omega.2021.102539
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    Cited by:

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    3. Sandoval, M. Gabriela & Álvarez-Miranda, Eduardo & Pereira, Jordi & Ríos-Mercado, Roger Z. & Díaz, Juan A., 2022. "A novel districting design approach for on-time last-mile delivery: An application on an express postal company," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).

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