A decision support system for public logistics information service management and optimization

a r t i c l e i n f o Transportation optimization usually aims at minimizing the empty load ratios (ELRs) of vehicles. Most Chinese vehicles for logistics are owned by individual entrepreneurs. Because China is very large, transport distances are typically long, and thus the ELR is very high. The ELR is the primary reason for high transport costs, considerable pollution, and high energy consumption. Many Chinese local governments try to build public transport information services that decrease the ELR. This work proposes a decision support system (DSS) for public logistics information service management and optimization (PLISMO) for vehicle drivers and owners, logistics customers and related logistics service providers and management institutes. The dynamic and real-time matching model between goods and vehicles, and the enabling technologies are important issues for the DSS for PLISMO. Therefore, intelligent positioning technologies are employed to acquire and manage the vehicle status. A model matching vehicles with goods is developed based on an assessment model of transport capability and service priority criteria. A multi-objective real-time scheduling model is devised to minimize the ELR. Based on the concepts and decision-making models for PLISMO, a DSS is created and the architecture of the system is investigated. The effectiveness of the DSS and decision-making models is demonstrated by a case of finished vehicle logistics (FVL). Analytical results show that the proposed DSS can reduce the ELR and logistics cost. This system helps governments construct DSSs for general PLISMO. The Chinese economy has been transformed from a planned economy into a market economy. In the planned economy, door-to-door transport was common, and the supplies of goods were planned. Moreover, transport capability was short, such that logistics resources (e.g., vehicles) were utilized fully. After reforms, transport restrictions by the government were eliminated. At this time, China's automobile industry and its entire domestic economy began developing rapidly. Therefore, logistics requirements gradually increased, and transport capacity was challenged. In the last ten years especially, while China's economy has boomed, logistics resources owned by companies or individuals have been abundant. However, due to the unbalanced distribution of logistics demands in China and the asymmetry of information, logistics resources and their capacity are not fully utilized. The empty load ratio (ELR) is high, such that transport resources are wasted and the environment is polluted. The ELR is the ratio of mileage without load to total mileage in the context of a full …