Design of Freight Traffic Networks

Abstract

Most of the industrial freight trafik for the supply of materials and the distribution of products is performed in networks which serve to bundle the shipments and to reduce transport costs. Often these networks are operated by extemal carriers. We consider various types of such networks and the related design problems, both from the view of a manufacturer and of a carrier. A focus of the paper is on the modelling aspects within a common framework model, in particular on the definition of transport cost functions. Moreover, the recent literature on relevant network design methods is reviewed and two application cases are presented.