Urban transportation network design for fresh fruit and vegetables using gis-the case of bangkok

Abstract

A cold chain for perishable fresh products aims to preserve the quality of the products under the control of a predefined temperature range. To satisfy the delivery conditions within appropriate time windows, the most critical operations in cold chain management is the transportation and distribution of fresh products. Due to rapid population growth and increasing demand for high-quality fresh foods, it becomes critical to develop advanced transportation and distribution networks for fresh products, particularly in urban areas. This research aims to design different scenarios based on mathematical models for fresh products transportation and distribution network in the Bangkok metropolitan area using Geographic Information system (GIS). The proposed methodology integrates location-allocation and vehicle routing problem analysis. The performance of all possible scenarios is evaluated and compared by considering the number of required distribution centers and trucks, total travel time, total travel distance, as well as fairness among drivers. The results of the scenario analysis highlight that the alternative scenarios show a better performance as compared to the current network. In addition, the administrator can make a different decision among several alternatives by considering different aspects, such as investment cost, operating cost, and balance of using available resources. Therefore, it may help a public officer to design the fresh products logistics network considering actual demand and traffic conditions in Bangkok.