Network design and delivery scheme optimisation under integrated air-rail freight transportation

Abstract

ABSTRACT To promote the domestic economy and reduce transport costs, it is necessary for Chinese express companies to adopt the integrated air-rail freight transport mode. Thus, a major challenge is to determine how to efficiently use three kinds of transport vehicles: cargo aircraft, passenger aircraft bellies and high-speed train (HST) bellies. Therefore, in this paper, a bi-level model is constructed to allow an express company to optimise its integrated air-rail transport network and parcel delivery scheme. A hybrid algorithm is developed for solving the model. Data from the logistics company SF Express are used for a case study. From the calculated results, we find that the HST transport mode plays the main role, it can replace the passenger aircraft transportation to a large extent. Moreover, the total transport cost depends on the rental price of HST space largely. Furthermore, the timeliness requirement can largely influence the HST transportation ratio.