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The Vehicle Routing Problem: The Case of the Hong Kong Postal Service

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  • Ping Ji
  • Kejia Chen

Abstract

With the growth in population and development of business activities in Hong Kong, the range and level of services provided by Hongkong Post have multiplied. However, the schedule of its postal vehicles, including mail collection and delivery, is still constructed manually on a daily basis, based on the experience of staff and transportation reviews. In this paper, the problem of scheduling a set of n collection points (District Post Offices) from a depot (General Post Office) in Hong Kong Island is addressed. The objectives pursued are the maximization of resource utilization and minimization of operation costs. In other words, the variable cost is expected to be reduced. To achieve these goals, an integer linear programming (IP) model of the vehicle routing problem (VRP) is developed in an effort to obtain optimal solutions. As the model involves computational complexity, a commercial software package CPLEX is used to solve the problems efficiently. The results show that the proposed model can produce optimal vehicle routes and schedules.

Suggested Citation

  • Ping Ji & Kejia Chen, 2007. "The Vehicle Routing Problem: The Case of the Hong Kong Postal Service," Transportation Planning and Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(2-3), pages 167-182.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:transp:v:30:y:2007:i:2-3:p:167-182
    DOI: 10.1080/03081060701390841
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    Cited by:

    1. Iman, Niroomand & Khataie, Amir & Foomani, Matin, 2016. "Application of Vehicle Routing Optimization in Improving the Flow of Mail to a Processing Plant," 57th Transportation Research Forum (51st CTRF) Joint Conference, Toronto, Ontario, May 1-4, 2016 319313, Transportation Research Forum.
    2. Milica Šelmić & Miloš Nikolić & Aleksandar Čupić, 2020. "Postboxes Quantitative Optimization Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-10, March.

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