Optimizing fleet size and delivery scheduling for multi-temperature food distribution

In light of the demand for high-quality fresh food, transportation requirements for fresh food delivery have been continuously increasing in urban areas. Jointly delivering foods with different temperature-control requirements is an important issue for urban logistic carriers who transport both low temperature-controlled foods and normal merchandise. This study aims to analyze and optimize medium- and short-term operation planning for multi-temperature food transportation. For medium-term planning, this study optimizes fleet size for carriers considering time-dependent multi-temperature food demand. For short-term planning, this study optimizes vehicle loads and departure times from the terminal for each order of multi-temperature food, taking the fleet size decided during medium-term planning into account. The results suggest that carriers determine departure times of multi-temperature food with demand-supply interaction and deliver food of medium temperature ranges with priority because delivering such food yields more profit. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.