Pricing and timing of consolidated deliveries in presence of an express alternative - financial and environmental analysis
Pricing and timing of consolidated deliveries in presence of an express alternative - financial and environmental analysis
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发表时间：
2014
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通讯作者：
P. Berling;Fredrik Eng-Larsson
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作者：
P. Berling;Fredrik Eng-Larsson
运输整合作为一种降低成本和改善物流活动环境绩效的手段，一直受到研究人员和政治家的倡导。本文研究了具有共同装运频率的合并运输解决方案。当服务提供商为其客户设计这样的解决方案时，她面临着一个权衡：为了让对时间最敏感的客户加入整合解决方案，频率必须很高，这使得收集足够的需求以达到解决方案的规模经济是困难的;但是如果没有对时间最敏感的客户加入，每单位时间的需求就会减少，这也使得达到规模经济是困难的。在本文中，我们研究了服务提供商的定价和时间问题和环境影响的最优政策。服务提供商负责N个客户的运输，并以两种不同的价格向所有客户提供两份长期合同：直接快递，以全额费用立即派遣，或以降低的成本以给定的频率合并交付。结果表明，最优策略在很大程度上是由客户的异质性：有限的异质性客户的成本导致非常不同的（cid：27）erent最优策略相比，大的异质性。我们认为，这么多的整合项目失败的原因可能是由于异构性和整合政策之间的战略不匹配。我们还表明，即使实施合并的解决方案，它可能会导致更大的环境影响比直接交付由于库存积累或高于最佳频率的合并运输。
Shipment consolidation has been advocated by researchers and politicians as a means to reduce cost and improve environmental performance of logistics activities. This paper investigates consolidated transport solutions with a common shipment frequency. When a service provider designs such a solution for its customers, she faces a trade-o(cid:27): to have the most time-sensitive customers join the consolidated solution, the frequency must be high, which makes it di(cid:30)cult to gather enough demand to reach the scale economies of the solution; but by not having the most time-sensitive customers join, there will be less demand per time unit, which also makes it di(cid:30)cult to reach the scale economies. In this paper we investigate the service provider’s pricing and timing problem and the environmental implications of the optimal policy. The service provider is responsible for N customers’ transports, and o(cid:27)ers all customers two long-term contracts at two di(cid:27)erent prices: direct express delivery with immediate dispatch at full cost, or consolidated delivery at a given frequency at a reduced cost. It is shown that the optimal policy is largely driven by customer heterogeneity: limited heterogeneity in customers’ costs leads to very di(cid:27)erent optimal policies compared to large heterogeneity. We argue that the reason so many consolidation projects fail may be due to a strategic mismatch between heterogeneity and consolidation policy. We also show that even if the consolidated solution is implemented, it may lead to a larger environmental impact than direct deliveries due to inventory build-up or a higher-than-optimal frequency of the consolidated transport.