Freight Transportation Network Research Articles

Topological Connectivity Analysis on Freight Transportation Networks

Topological Connectivity Analysis on Freight Transportation Networks

Maximizing reliability of the capacity vector for multi-source multi-sink stochastic-flow networks subject to an assignment budget

Many real-world networks such as freight, power and long distance transportation networks are represented as multi-source multi-sink stochastic flow network. The objective is to transmit flow successfully between the source and the sink nodes. The reliability of the capacity vector of the assigned components is used an indicator to find the best flow strategy on the network. The Components Assignment Problem (CAP) deals with searching the optimal components to a given network subject to one or more constraints. The CAP in multi-source multi-sink stochastic flow networks with multiple commodities has not yet been discussed, so our paper investigates this scenario to maximize the reliability of the capacity vector subject to an assignment budget. The mathematical formulation of the problem is defined, and a proposed solution based on genetic algorithms is developed consisting of two steps. The first searches the set of components with the minimum cost and the second searches the flow vector of this set of components with maximum reliability. We apply the solution approach to three commonly used examples from the literature with two sets of available components to demonstrate its strong performance.

Collaborative intermodal freight transport network design and vehicle arrangement with applications in the oil and gas drilling equipment industry

Decentralized freight decision making has been proven to be one of the barriers to achieve the optimal cost-saving freight transportation network. This study presents a collaborative intermodal freight network for the transportations of oil and gas drilling equipment, where a freight forwarder serves as a centralized decision-maker to coordinate transportation activities. We formulate the problem as a minimum intermodal transport cost model with a nonlinear objective function. Also, novel path-based decision variables instead of arc-based decision variables are used to formulate the selections of transportation services. A hybrid genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization algorithm (GA-PSO) in combination with a batch strategy is designed. The experimental results show that the proposed hybrid GA-PSO method has a better performance compared with existing algorithms in terms of the solution quality, and computational time. Furthermore, the proposed approach is applied to real-world instances of O&G drilling equipment in the ‘China Railway Express' network.

A New Freight Truck Resiliency Indicator with Connected Vehicle Technology

A freight route resiliency indicator is developed in this paper. Basic characteristics of connected vehicle technology (CVT) which can provide advance traffic information is used to develop the indicator. The indicator is sensitive to route changes that might occur due to detour from an unforeseen congestion downstream of the path of the freight truck. The truck can detour at an appropriate exit on its route. This could be done to maximize the route resiliency. Application of the indicator is shown with a 20-mile stretch of I-710 (interstate 710) freeway of the multimodal freight transportation network in the Southern California Region. I-710 is considered as one of the most important truck routes connecting Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles to other multimodal terminals of California and elsewhere in the United States. It is found that the truck route resilience is maximized if the truck detour occurs at approximately 7th, 6th and 4th exit-ramps downstream from the truck location with probability 0.75, 0.5 and 0.25, respectively. This indicates trucks ability to avoid the downstream congested point with these three probabilities. The resilience indicator developed in this research is extremely useful for resiliency improvements of freight operations in urban regions where congestion occurrence is quite frequent and random

Generating Greenhouse Gas Cutting Incentives when Allocating Carbon Dioxide Emissions to Shipments in Road Freight Transportation

Road freight transportation accounts for a great share of the anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In order to provide a common methodology for carbon accounting related to transport activities, the European Committee for Standardization has published the European Norm EN-16258. Unfortunately, EN-16258 contains in its current version some gaps and ambiguities and leaves room for interpretation, which makes the comparison of the environmental performance of different logistics networks still difficult and hinders the identification of best practices. This research aims to overcome the ambiguities of EN-16258 concerning the allocation of GHG emissions to shipments in road freight transportation. In detail, we apply concepts of the cooperative game theory to identify among all allocation units specified by EN-16258 the most meaningful one. In doing so, we continue previous research projects that analyzed two important aspects of the EN-16258 allocation rules: accuracy and fairness. This study provides further insights into this allocation problem by investigating the incentive power of the different allocation schemes to opt for the GHG minimal way of running a road freight transport network. First, we complement the list of transport scenarios introduced by the prior research projects and present two novel transport scenarios. Second, we carry out a series of numerical experiments to compare the performance of the EN-16258 allocation rules with respect to accuracy, fairness, and the GHG minimizing incentive. Across all aspects, and taking the findings of the prior research projects into account, we conclude that the distance-based allocation rule is the most meaningful one.

A Systematic Literature Review of the Design of Intermodal Freight Transportation Networks Addressing Location-Allocation Decisions

This systematic literature review focuses on planning models jointly addressing location and allocation decisions related to the design of intermodal freight transportation networks. Since this body of literature is evolving quickly, a methodology based on a linked two-stage analysis is proposed. The first stage analyses recent surveys to establish the guidelines and criteria that enable the subsequent systematic review. Then, the review concentrates on analysing contributions to the current state of the art on intermodal freight transportation from two close, yet different research streams: transportation networks and supply chain networks. Key features identified in the first stage such as: 1) the research problem's characteristics; 2) the intermodal networks design's particularities; 3) proposed solution techniques, among others, are used to classify and analyse the different contributions. The review identifies current trends, emerging topics and some issues that merit being researched. [Received: 4 May 2019; Revised: 12 December 2019; Accepted: 1 February 2020]

Freight transportation network model with bundling option

We consider a freight transportation network model in which we can send goods with or without bundling. When we choose the bundling option, we can send multiple goods, after grouping into a bundle, at the cost of one unit good; however, bundling and unbundling also incur costs. The model was originally developed to solve the problem of relocating empty containers in hinterland transportation, but it also has an application in multimodal freight transportation. We investigate the complexity of the problem and develop an efficient heuristic that uses a network flow algorithm.

Gravity law in the Chinese highway freight transportation networks

The gravity law has been documented in many socioeconomic networks, which states that the flow between two nodes positively correlates with the strengths of the nodes and negatively correlates with the distance between the two nodes. However, such research on highway freight transportation networks (HFTNs) is rare. We construct the directed and undirected highway freight transportation networks between 338 Chinese cities using about 15.06 million truck transportation records in five months and test the traditional and modified gravity laws using GDP, population, and per capita GDP as the node strength. It is found that the gravity law holds over about two orders of magnitude for the whole sample, as well as the daily samples, except for the days around the Spring Festival during which the daily sample sizes are significantly small. Accordingly, the daily exponents of the gravity law are stable except during the Spring Festival period. The results also show that the gravity law has higher explanatory power for the undirected HFTNs than for the directed HFTNs. However, the traditional and modified gravity laws have comparable explanatory power.

China railway industry reform evolution approach: Based on the Vertical Separation Model

In this paper a mathematical statistics and measurement approach called trans-logarithmic total cost function is used to give an objective calculation result to support Vertical Separation (VS) based reform of China railway industry. Three questions including whether the VS is suitable for the railway reform evolution in China, whether the VS can reduce the operation cost in China and the specific VS-based reform process are discussed and solved. Three total costs related parameters, two elasticity of marginal cost values, and three total income related parameters are applied to the decision-making. The results of case study show that: The passenger-freight transport combination is not helpful to reduce the total operation cost; Freight cost and network total cost, passenger cost and network total cost are replaceable; Passenger transport volume increases per 1%, the freight transport cost increases 2.154%, freight transport volume increases per 1%, the passenger transport cost increases 2.741%; It is inefficient when applied passenger-freight transport combination model; It is better to separate the passenger transport service, freight transport service and the railway network vertically. Finally, the detail China railway industry reform recommendations are presented with three steps: first, Railway Passenger Transport Corporation, Freight-Network Combination Corporation, Railway Freight Transport Corporation, Branch Railway Corporation and Public Interest Railway Corporation can be established and managed by China Railway Corporation, some powerful and related supporting policies should be formulated and carried out by State Railway Administration to ensure the reform enforcement; second, the investment approaches, railway industry incentives system etc. are the key reform elements; third, the passenger transport service, freight transport service and network service companies can be separated totally.

Analysis of Passenger and Freight Transportation Network Characteristics of Major Airports in Southeast Asia

Analysis of Passenger and Freight Transportation Network Characteristics of Major Airports in Southeast Asia

Dynamic Multimodal Freight Routing Using a Co-Simulation Optimization Approach

The complexity and dynamics of multimodal freight transportation networks make the optimum routing of freight demand a challenging task. Route decision-making in a dynamical and complex urban multimodal transportation environment aims to minimize a certain objective cost relying on the accurate prediction of the traffic network states and the estimation of the route costs that are not readily available. The purpose of this paper is to develop a methodology to be used by a central coordinator who generates individual routing decisions for shippers by minimizing overall cost, assuming that all participating shippers send their demands to this central coordinator. We propose, analyze, and evaluate a multimodal freight routing system with hard vehicle availability and capacity constraints based on a hierarchical Co-Simulation Optimization (COSMO) approach. The COSMO approach consists of a simulation layer that provides traffic state predictions and cost estimations to an upper optimization layer that incorporates a load balancing methodology to speed up the convergence of the optimization algorithm. A simulation test bed consisting of a road traffic simulation and a rail simulation model for the Los Angeles/Long Beach Ports regional area is developed and is used to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach.

Road Network Connectivity and Freight Transportation for Supporting the Development of the Northern Zone of Aceh

Road network connectivity significantly affects merchandise, transport, and people’s lives. Freight transportation network models are utilized as frameworks of transport policy decisions to estimate the impacts of infrastructure projects on traffic. The goods supply delivery modes in Aceh, Indonesia, are dominated by road-based transportation, where up to 95% of daily needs, such as food, are carried using trucks, buses, and other vehicles. This condition emerged owing to a lack of infrastructure and facilities. Thus, the main purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of road network connectivity on goods delivery in the northern zone of Aceh. This research adopted a quantitative technique (survey questionnaire) and involved as many as 420 respondents. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with Analysis of Moment Structures. The result of the study shows the value of regressions weight is 0.375 or 37.5%. It indicates the road network connectivity variable has a significant relationship with the transport of goods. Furthermore, the road network connectivity of the area has the strongest link or significantly influences the activities of regional development. Therefore, the government in the northern zone of Aceh can formulate road network policies oriented towards the development of the area’s new economy and support the implementation of the Arun Lhokseumawe Special Economic Zone, which is the business area and trade laws are different from the rest of the country.

Tactical planning on freight transport networks: service design and pricing

Tactical planning on freight transport networks: service design and pricing

Multimodal Freight Transportation Strategic Network Design for Sustainable Supply Chain

The strategic network design for multimodal freight transportation is gaining attention from a variety of researchers, such as academic scholars, practitioners and policymakers. Consequently, multimodal freight transportation strategic network design has seen a significant increase in the number of research articles in last two decades. This article evaluates the current state of multimodal freight transportation network design using classification and coding methodology. In this methodology, relevant freight network design articles are divided into different classes such as sustainability aspects, operations research models, available transport modes, the decision maker involved and region of study. The objective of this papers is two-fold namely (a) to identify the existing research in the strategic network design under sustainability aspects, operations research models, available transport modes, actor involved and region of study, and (b) to discuss the new research dimensions of strategic network design for multimodal freight transportation network design.

Research on the Complex Characteristics of Freight Transportation from a Multiscale Perspective Using Freight Vehicle Trip Data

To better guide the sustainable developing of freight transport aligning with environmental objectives it is of strategic importance to capture freight transportation characteristics more realistically. This paper characterizes freight transportation by using a complex network approach from multidimensional perspectives based on freight vehicle trips data. We first build two subnetworks from prefecture-level city-scale and county-level city-scale. Subsequently, network analysis indices based on complex network theory were applied to examine the topological structure and complexity of the freight transportation networks. Furthermore, the community detection method is introduced to reveal the networks’ clustering characteristics. The findings show that the prefecture-level city-scale network and the county-level city-scale network both have obvious small-world network characteristics, but the prefecture-level city-scale network has higher operating efficiency for goods movement. Additionally, the influence of the cross-border effect on the freight transportation network was verified. In terms of the community structure, the freight network shows distinct clustering features only at the county-level city-scale.

Exploring the Node Importance and Its Influencing Factors in the Railway Freight Transportation Network in China

Node importance is a key factor affecting the overall operation efficiency of a railway freight transportation network (RFTN) that can be measured with the indicators of Hub and PageRank. Based on complex network theory and the national railway cargo exchange data of China’s provinces, this study constructs an RFTN model with the 31 provinces as the nodes and measures the values of Hub and PageRank for the 31 provinces. Then, the time evolution law of the importance of the provincial nodes is analyzed comprehensively, and, using a regression model, the influencing factors of the importance of the provincial nodes are identified. The results show the following. (1) The uneven distribution of natural resources will affect the spatial changes in the importance of RFTN nodes. The Hub values tended to cluster around the average, and the economic structure of the output-oriented provinces improved as a whole. At the same time, the PageRank values of many provinces in the central and western regions significantly increased, and those provinces exhibited more frequent exchanges of goods with other provinces and closer economic ties with other regions. (2) The traffic fixed asset investments and the population density have the most obvious influences on the importance of the provincial nodes with a positive effect. In contrast, the railway freight concentration (RFC) coefficient, geographical location (longitude and latitude), and coastal region all have negative effects on the importance of provincial nodes. The results of this study provide scientific decision-making support for the reasonable establishment and distribution of RFTN hubs in China.

Land use and public health impact assessment in a supply chain network design problem: A case study

The establishment of freight transport facilities and logistics operations in urban areas tends to create substantial public health and land use burdens, due to the high concentration of people and the limited availability of land. This paper proposes a tri-objective supply chain network design model, to address the economic, public health, and land use impacts, associated with an urban freight transport network. The capability of the proposed model and methodologies are illustrated using a case study of the freight transport network in Can Tho city, which involves the selection of raw material sourcing and product distribution locations across rural and urban areas. The metric of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) is used to represent the overall public health impact of the transport emissions exposure in people living within 5000 m of the transportation routes. Geographical information system (GIS) tools are used to explore the population density distribution across transport network areas and to estimate the number of exposed people. The land use impact due to the presence of warehouses and plants is taken into account, using the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method. The obtained design solutions under single- and multi-objective optimization are presented. The trade-offs among the contradictory objectives are also analyzed to obtain various alternative solutions, allowing geographers to understand how to design environmentally benign, urban freight transport networks, based on sustainable development preferences.

Intermodal Line between Ploce and Brcko: Future Perspectives for the Pan-European Transport

The aim of this paper is to propose the intermodal logistics Corridor Vc, relying on the European Union transport policy, which will be in the function of regional development. The main goal is to analyze a potential route of freight intermodal transport between the ports of Ploče and Brčko in order to popularize this intermodal line at the international level. Among the most important activities in achieving this goal is the integration in the Euro corridor system. This integration is of crucial importance for companies to successfully execute their supply chain processes both domestically and internationally. The paper is based on the analysis of the current socio-economic situation and the condition of the intermodal transport system in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), as well as existing strategic studies and development plans. This paper sheds a light on the creation of a strong integrated intermodal freight transport network in BiH, that will be a quality alternative to other international intermodal flows from the aspect of shorter transport time, lower transport costs and more favorable ecological aspects of transportation.

Selection of ports, tariffs, service frequency, and ship size for a SSS Route in Java Island

Short Sea Shipping (SSS) is one of modes to reduce the dominance of trucking mode of freight transportation in Indonesia. It concerns to multimodal freight transportation network system through sea mode transportation line. As a maritime nation, it is possible to develop SSS lines in Indonesia. The development of the SSS lines is expected to improve the continuity of goods which supporting the efficiency and effectiveness of the national logistics system. It develops integrated connectivity in local, inter-island and national scale. The objective of this study is to obtain optimum SSS route with objective function to maximize the difference of total transportation cost by designing SSS operating system model. Several factors are considered in SSS operating system model as policy measures, such as transit ports selection, tariffs, services, and ship sizes. This SSS model is approached by Incremental Assignment method. SSS operating system model will be applied to the freight mobility in Java.

A multi-industry economic impact perspective on adaptive capacity planning in a freight transportation network

The multi-modal freight transportation network plays a vital role in maintaining commodity flows across multiple industries and multiple regions. As such, the effects of large-scale disruptive events could result in the closure of key transportation nodes and links, causing disruptions in commodity flows and larger disruptions to industries requiring those commodities for economic productivity. This work integrates a multi-commodity network flow formulation with an economic interdependency model to quantify the multi-industry impacts of a disrupted transportation network to devise contingent rerouting plans to strengthen the network's adaptive capacity. The formulation proposed here is illustrated with a freight transportation planning case study in the state of Oklahoma, considering disruptive scenarios in which a network component is lost and how the proposed approach improves total economic productivity following a disruption.