An auction-enabled collaborative routing mechanism for omnichannel on-demand logistics through transshipment

Abstract Nowadays’ on-demand logistics operations are carried out on separate delivery networks from competitive contractors, with redundant resources and high costs. This article proposes a new paradigm to deal with industrial and societal challenges, developing an auction-enabled collaborative routing mechanism for omnichannel on-demand logistics in a real-time transshipment network. We consider an online service platform for real-time management of on-demand pickup and delivery tasks, where multiple freight shippers can trade with multiple freight carriers. Freight shippers are retailers or individual customers, while freight carriers are a group of logistics service providers. The platform acts as the auctioneer. A two-stage combinational auction mechanism is designed for dynamic on-demand task (re)allocation. Tactical-level auctioning and operational-level routing decisions are optimized together. The transshipment-based task generation method is used to identify uneconomic paths from carrier’s real-time network for outsourcing. A transshipment-based routing algorithm is developed to enable each carrier to make decentralized decisions for network reconstruction and transportation bidding. Our model aims to improve the overall social welfare while bringing benefits to stakeholders involved. The computational results have shown positive society impacts. Specifically, shippers’ payments can be saved while carriers’ profits are increased compared with other operative models which have been investigated in previous research studies or industry. In addition, a substantial reduction in CO2 emissions and vehicles required can be achieved. The main reason for the improvement in social welfare is due to the optimal network achieved through collaboration. We also numerically analyze the impacts of three key factors: growth in demand density, urgency of tasks and flexible auction interval.

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