A Two-Stage Solution Procedure for Food Delivery Decisions in Cities with Circular Transportation Networks

Abstract

This paper analyzes the decision problem of delivering fresh food in cities whose transportation systems are made up of several parallel loops. We develop a two-stage solution procedure that integrates heuristic search algorithms and an integer programming model. The proposed procedure can be applied to a wide range of distribution problems with a specified delivery time window and a circular transportation network structure as exemplified in City of Beijing.