Abstract
Inspired by actual parcel delivery operations in London, this paper describes a two-echelon distribution system that combines the use of driving and walking as part of last-mile deliveries in urban areas for a single driver. The paper presents an optimisation model that explicitly treats and integrates the driving and walking elements, and describes a branch-and-cut algorithm that uses new valid inequalities specifically tailored for the problem at hand. Computational results based on real instances obtained from a courier operating in London are presented to show the performance of the algorithm.
Highlights
Background and motivationSharp growth in e-commerce sales in developed countries worldwide over the last decade has led to substantial increases in urban freight goods transport, with associated negative impacts on road traffic, availability of kerbside space and air quality
This paper contributes to the literature by (1) introducing a two-echelon last-mile delivery system that explicitly considers driving and walking decisions in an integrated manner, (2) describing an associated optimisation model, valid inequalities and a branch-and-cut algorithm to solve the model, and (3) presenting results on real instances derived from last-mile delivery operations in London
The branch-and-cut algorithm is designed to optimally solve the integer linear programming formulation presented in Sect. 3.1 and starts by solving the linear programming (LP) relaxation defined by the objective function (1) and constraints (2), (3), (4), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10)
Summary
Sharp growth in e-commerce sales in developed countries worldwide over the last decade has led to substantial increases in urban freight goods transport, with associated negative impacts on road traffic, availability of kerbside space and air quality. In the UK, total measured national volumes in the parcels market increased by 10%, to 2.6 billion items, in 2018–19 (Ofcom 2019). This growth and worsening road traffic and parking conditions in city centres make parcel deliveries ever-more difficult to perform. Factors that increase vehicle use for parcel deliveries include the growing trend for same-day and ‘instant’ deliveries (within 2 h) leading to fragmentation of consignments and increasing the number and frequency of
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