Resource Balancing in the Design of Hub-and-Spoke Network for LTL Logistics

Abstract

To cope with the problem that less-than-truckload (LTL) logistics network design for certain origin—destination (OD) flow demands often fails to utilize the network resources in a balanced manner, the characteristics of OD flow uncertainties and network design difficulties are analyzed, and a mixed integer programming model is devised by considering the OD flow uncertainties based on inventory theory. An example study demonstrates that design of a logistics network with OD flow uncertainties based on optimizing the network operation and construction costs, and the network resources utilization ratio comprehensively has a significant improvement in balancing the utilization degree of network resources compared to only considering minimizing the network operation and construction costs. The result contributes to adjustment of the logistics network structure to improve the balancing utilization degree of network resources for uncertain OD flow demands.