Modeling the Impact of Technological Changes on Urban Commercial Trips by Commercial Activity Routing Type

Abstract

An array of noteworthy developments in logistics practice has taken place without an equivalent and comprehensive development in urban freight transportation modeling. Part of the problem is the lack of deep understanding of the workings of distribution processes in relation to the generation of truck traffic. In this paper it is emphasized the role and importance that distribution network size, and information and communication technology have on the truck traffic flows that materializes as the supply chain that flows over the public infrastructure. This paper develops the concept of commercial activity routing types that characterize the interplay between transportation demand requests and routing characteristics. This research contributes to the field proposing a novel and detailed characterization of truck flows in a supply chain context. Using well-known yet simple models and formulas from vehicle routing, operations research, and management science literature, we derive behavioral insights about distributors and carriers’ routing and order sizing decisions, as routing constraints and second order effects are important drivers of truck flows. The main contribution is to bring a new commercial activity-routing perspective and deeper level of operational decision-making analysis to cope with the intricacies of freight transportation modeling.