Vehicle Routing Problem of an Innovative B2C and O2O Joint Distribution Service

Abstract In respond to the problem of insufficient capacity in peak hours and idle capacity in off-peak hours of O2O delivery, the logistics industry has been challenged to minimize the total costs of both B2C and O2O delivery. Considering the high coincidence in geographical space of B2C and O2O orders, an innovative joint distribution service is proposed. This paper designs a modified C-W algorithm based on the merging of node-inserted paths to achieve the optimization of pickup and delivery problem with time windows (PDPTW). A numerical analysis is conducted to compare the independent distribution mode with the innovative joint distribution mode. The results highlight that the innovative joint distribution mode performs better than the independent distribution mode in both different order sizes and different lengths of O2O time windows, which can improve the delivery efficiency and lower the total costs.