The forwarder planning problem in a two‐echelon network

Abstract

This paper is motivated by the case of a forwarder dealing with inland transportation planning, from a seaport, of inbound containers filled with pallets having different destinations in the land‐side. Although the forwarder is not the owner nor controls any vehicle, he is required to plan both the assignment of containers to intermediate depots, where the pallets are unpacked, and the assignment of pallets to the vehicles used for the distribution from depots to consignees. We present a mathematical model supporting the forwarder in this two‐echelon network to minimize assignment costs, while accounting for a balanced workload among all carriers involved in this distribution scheme. We discuss a tailor‐made implementation of the model in a realistic context and present a heuristic method to solve realistic‐sized instances. Our computational experiments confirm the viability of this method.

Multiperiod transshipment location–allocation problem with flow synchronization under stochastic handling operations

“…Location–allocation problems that make use of intermediate hubs for shipping goods from origins to destinations have been primarily addressed in the literature to deal with modern global freight logistics. For instance, Di Francesco et al [8] studied the problem of a forwarder that needs to ship containers filled with pallets to intermediate depots of a two echelon‐network where pallets are unpacked and sent to different destinations. Instead, Zhao et al [37] approached the location of consolidation centers in China as transshipment facilities to ship freight by rail routes from China to Europe.…”