An Integrated Potential Assessment Criteria and TOPSIS Based Decision Support System for Road Freight Transportation Routing

Abstract

The objective of this study was to develop a Decision Support System (DSS) to select the best road freight transportation route. This DSS considers transportation cost, transportation time, and road physical route characteristic scores which are calculated by standard criteria. These criteria are composed of four groups: road elements, blackspots, transportation facilitation, and road competency. Moreover, the descriptions of each scale were constructed by the Delphi method based on suitability and facilitation of freight transportation. Each criterion has different methods to calculate the potential scores. Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) was combined in the route selection algorithm which was a Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). This technique provides solutions to problems involving conflicting and multiple objectives. TOPSIS is applied for the final ranking of solutions used by the freight transportation routing implementation. The case of a logistic service provider company was used to evaluate the proposed DSS. The empirical study showed that the developed DSS works successfully.