This paper deals with one-to-many-to-one vehicle routing and scheduling problems with pickups and deliveries and studies the effect of various backhauling strategies. Initially, focus is given on problem instances with clustered backhauls where all delivery customers must be visited before pickup customers. Afterward, operational settings with mixed backhauls and varying visiting sequence restrictions with respect to the capacity of the vehicles are examined. The proposed solution method evolves a set of reference solutions on the basis of a novel Adaptive Path Relinking framework. The latter encompasses an adaptive multisolution recombination procedure to generate provisional solutions based on the recurrence of particular solution attributes. On return, these solutions are used as guiding points for performing search trajectories from initial reference solutions via tunneling. Computational results on benchmark data sets of the literature illustrate the competitiveness and robustness of the proposed approach compared to state-of-the-art solution methods for well-known vehicle routing and scheduling problems. Finally, various experiments are also reported to demonstrate the economic effect of different mixing levels and densities of linehaul and backhaul customers.
The purpose of this paper is the optimization of an online shared freight transportation service platform with the use of Conjoint Analysis for the region of Balkan – Mediterranean. A Choice-Based Conjoint analysis was performed amongst the partners of the INTERREG Balkan-Med SCOPE project in order to optimize such a platform which is under development in the frame of the project. The results show that the best possible configuration of the platform should be offered at least in the local language, on a website, in the form of an auction platform, the charging should be done per shipment, and its range should be European / international. Moreover, selecting the right levels for each attribute is of crucial importance for the success of a freight transportation service platform, as the best configuration has a market share that is above 100% of the second-best configuration, according to the market simulation that was performed. Therefore, tools as Conjoint Analysis should be incorporated in the planning and design of such products in order to have the best marketable results for shippers, carriers, and consumers; a product that is customized according to their needs and preferences.
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