The design of courier transportation networks with a nonlinear zero-one programming model

Abstract

The courier industry is one of the most essential parts of the modern logistics. Meanwhile, the courier transportation network is one of the most important infrastructures of courier enterprises to take participate into operation. This paper presents a combinatorial optimization model for the courier transportation network design problem, and the aim of network optimization is to determine the transportation organization mode for each courier flow. A nonlinear zero-one integer programming model is formulated to describe the problem, the objective function of the model is intended to minimize the total cost including the accumulation cost, the transportation cost and the transfer cost. Also, we take transportation modes and types of transport carriers into account in the objective function. The constraints of the combinatorial optimization model contain capacities of transfer and sorting centers and delivery dates predefined.