Spatial and temporal synchronization of vehicles in logistics networks

Abstract

In logistics networks, service providers offer on-site services to the customers. Often, there is a need to synchronize the routes of vehicles that provide such services. Synchronization is required for example in case of a heterogeneous fleet of serving vehicles, where large vehicles carry goods and supply small vehicles, which distribute the goods to customers. We model such a routing problem for a network of customers that are served through a fleet of heterogeneous vehicles. We present a new model for synchronizing cargo exchanges on vehicle routes and provide first computational results for this problem.