Grocery Distribution with Multi-Compartment Vehicles

Abstract

This article discusses the use of multi-compartment vehicles in grocery distribution. In grocery distribution, special characteristics of available products, i.e., nutritions in particular, have to be considered for transportation. Retailers offer a wide range of products from frozen over fresh to ambient goods. The distribution therefore asks for specialized vehicles that offer the required temperature control. This can be addressed with single-compartment vehicles, each dedicated to exactly one temperature, or multi-compartment vehicles (MCVs). Multi-compartment vehicles offer the possibility to separate the loading area of the vehicle into multiple chambers (compartments), each with a different temperature setting. The implication of this multiple compartments for the use in distribution, the technical configuration possibilities of MCVs, and both advantages and disadvantages are discussed in detail in this article. Further, current literature that addresses the use of MCV in the field of grocery distribution is presented. The corresponding publications and their research topic are summarized and the main findings are given. In this way, this article provides a detailed overview of the use of MCVs in grocery retailing and the relevant problems discussed in literature.