The rapid growth of e-commerce has driven retailers to establish multiple retail channels to enhance service quality for their customers. Despite retailers’ efforts to serve customers, services may not always be available due to various reasons. In such cases, customers often retry their purchases through their preferred channel. This behavior, along with the complexities of multi-channel retailing, complicates both the structure and costs of last-mile network design. To optimize store locations and costs, this paper proposes a mixed-integer programming (MIP) model for tactical store location planning, considering customer retry purchasing patterns and three channels: ship from store (SFS), buy online and pick up in store (BOPS), and offline shopping (OS). Given that the problem is NP-hard in the strong sense, we develop an iterative two-phase Lagrangian relaxation and granular tabu search heuristic (LR-GTS) to tackle large-scale instances. In each iteration, the LR operator decomposes the model and produces high-quality location schemes, while the GTS operator improves the vehicle routing in the SFS channel. Numerical results demonstrate that our heuristic exhibits strong performance in solving large-scale problems involving 600 customers. Additionally, we apply our model to real-world cases, offering valuable managerial insights derived from the sensitivity analysis results.
{"title":"A multi-channel retail store location model considering customer retry purchasing patterns","authors":"Lifen Yun , Runfeng Yu , Hongqiang Fan , Yuanjie Tang , Xun Weng","doi":"10.1016/j.tre.2026.104674","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tre.2026.104674","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The rapid growth of e-commerce has driven retailers to establish multiple retail channels to enhance service quality for their customers. Despite retailers’ efforts to serve customers, services may not always be available due to various reasons. In such cases, customers often retry their purchases through their preferred channel. This behavior, along with the complexities of multi-channel retailing, complicates both the structure and costs of last-mile network design. To optimize store locations and costs, this paper proposes a mixed-integer programming (MIP) model for tactical store location planning, considering customer retry purchasing patterns and three channels: ship from store (SFS), buy online and pick up in store (BOPS), and offline shopping (OS). Given that the problem is <em>NP-hard</em> in the strong sense, we develop an iterative two-phase Lagrangian relaxation and granular tabu search heuristic (LR-GTS) to tackle large-scale instances. In each iteration, the LR operator decomposes the model and produces high-quality location schemes, while the GTS operator improves the vehicle routing in the SFS channel. Numerical results demonstrate that our heuristic exhibits strong performance in solving large-scale problems involving 600 customers. Additionally, we apply our model to real-world cases, offering valuable managerial insights derived from the sensitivity analysis results.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49418,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review","volume":"208 ","pages":"Article 104674"},"PeriodicalIF":8.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145978645","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-04-01Epub Date: 2026-01-21DOI: 10.1016/j.tre.2026.104698
Laijun Zhao , Weijie Xie , Huiyong Li , Changzhi Wu , Shuo Sun , Pingle Yang , Lixin Zhou
Disasters that can occur unexpectedly pose significant threats to human life, health, and property. When such events take place in urban agglomerations, their impact is likely to become more complex. In the present study, we focus on the emergency facility location-allocation problem and explore regional collaboration strategies to effectively address the challenges posed by urban agglomerations. We develop a collaborative emergency response network design framework and propose a collaborative emergency facility location-allocation model for the problem. Given the intrinsic relationships among emergency operations, the model integrates the planning of facility location, victim evacuation, casualty transfer, and medical supply allocation. Moreover, given the uncertainty in the number of casualties, we employ a p-robust optimization model. The model, which formulates with bi-objectives of cost and resilience, is solved using an augmented ε-constraint method and applied to a case in the demonstration zone of green and integrated ecological development of the Yangtze River Delta. Our simulation results reveal that, compared to the existing territorial priority strategy, the regional emergency collaboration strategy increases network resilience by 19.51% and reduces emergency response time by 1.26 h. In addition, we conduct sensitivity analyses on various parameters and provide managerial insights to improve emergency operations in urban agglomerations.
{"title":"A p-Robust Location-Allocation model for Resilience-Oriented collaborative emergency response network in urban agglomerations","authors":"Laijun Zhao , Weijie Xie , Huiyong Li , Changzhi Wu , Shuo Sun , Pingle Yang , Lixin Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.tre.2026.104698","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tre.2026.104698","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Disasters that can occur unexpectedly pose significant threats to human life, health, and property. When such events take place in urban agglomerations, their impact is likely to become more complex. In the present study, we focus on the emergency facility location-allocation problem and explore regional collaboration strategies to effectively address the challenges posed by urban agglomerations. We develop a collaborative emergency response network design framework and propose a collaborative emergency facility location-allocation model for the problem. Given the intrinsic relationships among emergency operations, the model integrates the planning of facility location, victim evacuation, casualty transfer, and medical supply allocation. Moreover, given the uncertainty in the number of casualties, we employ a <em>p-</em>robust optimization model. The model, which formulates with bi-objectives of cost and resilience, is solved using an augmented ε-constraint method and applied to a case in the demonstration zone of green and integrated ecological development of the Yangtze River Delta. Our simulation results reveal that, compared to the existing territorial priority strategy, the regional emergency collaboration strategy increases network resilience by 19.51% and reduces emergency response time by 1.26 h. In addition, we conduct sensitivity analyses on various parameters and provide managerial insights to improve emergency operations in urban agglomerations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49418,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review","volume":"208 ","pages":"Article 104698"},"PeriodicalIF":8.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146014578","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-04-01Epub Date: 2026-01-09DOI: 10.1016/j.tre.2026.104668
Xudong Diao , Meng Qiu
Incorporating both battery swapping and recharging strategies within electric vehicle (EV) service networks provides a flexible means of mitigating range limitations. While jointly optimizing these strategies poses significant modeling and computational challenges, it also yields valuable insights into their relative operational performance. We develop an optimization framework that jointly determines service network design, EV routing decisions, and the scheduling of recharging and battery swapping operations, while respecting capacity constraints on both activities. This study establishes a unified mixed-integer programming framework for EV service network design that integrates the two replenishment strategies under system-wide capacity limitations. To handle large-scale instances efficiently, we employ a column generation scheme, in which the pricing subproblem is solved using a bidirectional labeling algorithm supported by tailored dominance rules and problem-specific resource extension functions. In addition, a dedicated heuristic is designed to construct high-quality integer solutions. Computational experiments based on real-world case studies show that when both strategies are available, battery swapping tends to outperform recharging due to its shorter service time, highlighting the scalability and practical relevance of the proposed approach.
{"title":"Service network design for electric vehicles with combined battery swapping and recharging","authors":"Xudong Diao , Meng Qiu","doi":"10.1016/j.tre.2026.104668","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tre.2026.104668","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Incorporating both battery swapping and recharging strategies within electric vehicle (EV) service networks provides a flexible means of mitigating range limitations. While jointly optimizing these strategies poses significant modeling and computational challenges, it also yields valuable insights into their relative operational performance. We develop an optimization framework that jointly determines service network design, EV routing decisions, and the scheduling of recharging and battery swapping operations, while respecting capacity constraints on both activities. This study establishes a unified mixed-integer programming framework for EV service network design that integrates the two replenishment strategies under system-wide capacity limitations. To handle large-scale instances efficiently, we employ a column generation scheme, in which the pricing subproblem is solved using a bidirectional labeling algorithm supported by tailored dominance rules and problem-specific resource extension functions. In addition, a dedicated heuristic is designed to construct high-quality integer solutions. Computational experiments based on real-world case studies show that when both strategies are available, battery swapping tends to outperform recharging due to its shorter service time, highlighting the scalability and practical relevance of the proposed approach.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49418,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review","volume":"208 ","pages":"Article 104668"},"PeriodicalIF":8.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145940543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bike-sharing systems are an important mode of transportation, enabling individuals to rent bikes for short trips and return them to any station throughout the city. However, the dynamic nature of user arrivals at each station leads to imbalances between bike supply and demand, resulting in unsatisfied users. An essential challenge lies in efficiently deploying and scheduling rebalancing vehicles for bike redistribution, as these decisions have a considerable effect on the efficiency of the system. To tackle this challenge, we propose a dynamic rebalancing model that integrates tactical and operational decisions within a single optimization framework. Unlike approaches that treat these decisions separately, our model captures the interaction between the two: in the first stage, it determines how many vehicles should be deployed over the planning horizon (tactical decision), and in the second stage, it assigns stations to dynamic rebalancing groups and allocates vehicles to these groups in response to demand realizations (operational decisions). To address the computational challenge, we propose two approaches: an Improved Integer L-shaped decomposition algorithm and a heuristic that combines machine learning with an early stopping criterion to estimate the second-stage cost function. Moreover, we generate forecasts of rental and return demand and incorporate them into the optimization model to enhance decision-making under demand uncertainty. Our numerical results show that the proposed heuristic is highly effective in minimizing the unsatisfied demand while reducing the computational costs efficiently.
{"title":"What if rebalancing fleets could adapt? A two-stage stochastic model for dynamic bike redistribution","authors":"Mohammadreza Eslamipirharati , Maryam Motamedi , John Doucette , Nooshin Salari","doi":"10.1016/j.tre.2025.104640","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tre.2025.104640","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Bike-sharing systems are an important mode of transportation, enabling individuals to rent bikes for short trips and return them to any station throughout the city. However, the dynamic nature of user arrivals at each station leads to imbalances between bike supply and demand, resulting in unsatisfied users. An essential challenge lies in efficiently deploying and scheduling rebalancing vehicles for bike redistribution, as these decisions have a considerable effect on the efficiency of the system. To tackle this challenge, we propose a dynamic rebalancing model that integrates tactical and operational decisions within a single optimization framework. Unlike approaches that treat these decisions separately, our model captures the interaction between the two: in the first stage, it determines how many vehicles should be deployed over the planning horizon (tactical decision), and in the second stage, it assigns stations to dynamic rebalancing groups and allocates vehicles to these groups in response to demand realizations (operational decisions). To address the computational challenge, we propose two approaches: an Improved Integer L-shaped decomposition algorithm and a heuristic that combines machine learning with an early stopping criterion to estimate the second-stage cost function. Moreover, we generate forecasts of rental and return demand and incorporate them into the optimization model to enhance decision-making under demand uncertainty. Our numerical results show that the proposed heuristic is highly effective in minimizing the unsatisfied demand while reducing the computational costs efficiently.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49418,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review","volume":"208 ","pages":"Article 104640"},"PeriodicalIF":8.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145978648","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-04-01Epub Date: 2026-01-28DOI: 10.1016/j.tre.2026.104709
Xiaohan Liu , Arsalan Najafi , Sheng Jin , Hua Wang , Xiaolei Ma , Kun Gao
Public transport electrification contributes to the net-zero goal in the transport sector. However, high-power bus charging during peak hours places additional strain on the grid, while under-utilization of charging infrastructure limits its potential economic and social benefits. This study focuses on these challenges through integrated and shared optimization of battery electric buses (BEB) and shared micromobility systems (SMS) incorporating solar photovoltaic. We present a bi-level mixed-integer linear programming model (B-MILM) to jointly optimize BEB charging infrastructure, BEB charging schedules, solar PV installed capacity, and SMS charging schedule. The B-MILM is solved using a value-function-based exact approach. We derive a group of inequalities based on the problem characteristics to reduce solution time. A large-scale case study in Gothenburg, Sweden, demonstrates that solar photovoltaic and shared charging services yield annual cost savings 110% - 120% above investment costs for public transit agencies, even when the service fee revenue is excluded. Charging dispatching costs for e-scooter operators are reduced by up to 54%, and daily BEB charging grid loads decrease by 3% to 34% across seasons. The greenhouse emissions from electricity consumption of BEBs and e-scooters are reduced by 3%. The results offer new insights for sustainable charging and energy infrastructure planning and management for electric public transit.
{"title":"Integrated and shared charging optimization of electric buses and shared micromobility incorporating solar photovoltaic","authors":"Xiaohan Liu , Arsalan Najafi , Sheng Jin , Hua Wang , Xiaolei Ma , Kun Gao","doi":"10.1016/j.tre.2026.104709","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tre.2026.104709","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Public transport electrification contributes to the net-zero goal in the transport sector. However, high-power bus charging during peak hours places additional strain on the grid, while under-utilization of charging infrastructure limits its potential economic and social benefits. This study focuses on these challenges through integrated and shared optimization of battery electric buses (BEB) and shared micromobility systems (SMS) incorporating solar photovoltaic. We present a bi-level mixed-integer linear programming model (B-MILM) to jointly optimize BEB charging infrastructure, BEB charging schedules, solar PV installed capacity, and SMS charging schedule. The B-MILM is solved using a value-function-based exact approach. We derive a group of inequalities based on the problem characteristics to reduce solution time. A large-scale case study in Gothenburg, Sweden, demonstrates that solar photovoltaic and shared charging services yield annual cost savings 110% - 120% above investment costs for public transit agencies, even when the service fee revenue is excluded. Charging dispatching costs for e-scooter operators are reduced by up to 54%, and daily BEB charging grid loads decrease by 3% to 34% across seasons. The greenhouse emissions from electricity consumption of BEBs and e-scooters are reduced by 3%. The results offer new insights for sustainable charging and energy infrastructure planning and management for electric public transit.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49418,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review","volume":"208 ","pages":"Article 104709"},"PeriodicalIF":8.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146072509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-04-01Epub Date: 2026-01-28DOI: 10.1016/j.tre.2026.104705
Kaifu Li, Deqing Ma, Jinsong Hu, Xue Wang
Product-harm crises happen unexpectedly, triggering product recalls and altering consumer psychology, posing significant challenges to brands. This paper examines a monopoly brand selling a single product, identifying three crisis scenarios: no crisis, severe crisis, and mild crisis. Incorporating the crisis’s long-term effect, consumers’ price mapping psychology (PMP), and their vigilance to the crisis, we explore the dynamic pricing strategy for a far-sighted brand manager. The results suggest that in the absence of a crisis, the brand manager, weighing against consumers’ PMP and the law of demand (LOD), sets price based on the product’s basic quality. Regardless of whether the product survives the crisis, a risk premium will always be charged before a crisis to cushion recall costs. After the crisis, price drops, but demand may soften as consumers grow intolerant of implicated products and require products with superior basic quality. Thus, the crisis and its long-term effects inevitably harm both the supply and demand sides. Although the negative impact cannot be eliminated by dynamic pricing strategies, the brand can benefit from greater market share and minimize profit loss rates by leveraging consumers’ PMP and laxity. Interestingly, despite being exploited, consumers benefit from increased utility and consumer surplus. Notably, the hazard myopia of a brand manager is only more beneficial when the crisis arrives later. Brands confronted with crises must reduce production costs or be priced out of the market. By capitalizing on recalled products’ salvage value, the brand will lower the risk premium due to eased recall cost pressures.
{"title":"Dynamic pricing strategies based on Consumers’ psychology during product-harm crises","authors":"Kaifu Li, Deqing Ma, Jinsong Hu, Xue Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.tre.2026.104705","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tre.2026.104705","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Product-harm crises happen unexpectedly, triggering product recalls and altering consumer psychology, posing significant challenges to brands. This paper examines a monopoly brand selling a single product, identifying three crisis scenarios: no crisis, severe crisis, and mild crisis. Incorporating the crisis’s long-term effect, consumers’ price mapping psychology (PMP), and their vigilance to the crisis, we explore the dynamic pricing strategy for a far-sighted brand manager. The results suggest that in the absence of a crisis, the brand manager, weighing against consumers’ PMP and the law of demand (LOD), sets price based on the product’s basic quality. Regardless of whether the product survives the crisis, a risk premium will always be charged before a crisis to cushion recall costs. After the crisis, price drops, but demand may soften as consumers grow intolerant of implicated products and require products with superior basic quality. Thus, the crisis and its long-term effects inevitably harm both the supply and demand sides. Although the negative impact cannot be eliminated by dynamic pricing strategies, the brand can benefit from greater market share and minimize profit loss rates by leveraging consumers’ PMP and laxity. Interestingly, despite being exploited, consumers benefit from increased utility and consumer surplus. Notably, the hazard myopia of a brand manager is only more beneficial when the crisis arrives later. Brands confronted with crises must reduce production costs or be priced out of the market. By capitalizing on recalled products’ salvage value, the brand will lower the risk premium due to eased recall cost pressures.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49418,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review","volume":"208 ","pages":"Article 104705"},"PeriodicalIF":8.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146071619","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-04-01Epub Date: 2026-01-09DOI: 10.1016/j.tre.2025.104609
Sara Hsu , Andrew Balthrop , Dan Pellathy , Travis Kulpa , Gonzalo Andrew Ferrada , Joshua Fu
Climate shocks increasingly disrupt supply chains, yet research has focused primarily on mitigation strategies (i.e., carbon reduction), leaving adaptation strategies comparatively understudied. We begin to fill this gap by studying how transportation managers within a supply chain respond to climate-related shocks, defined as a month in which a state’s exposure to extreme temperature or precipitation events rises significantly, measured by the custom University of Tennessee Climate Index (UTCI), which combines anomalies in high/low temperature and heavy precipitation with population exposure. Drawing on structured interviews with transportation managers, we uncover beliefs that shippers tend to be less demand-responsive in the short-term to climate-related shocks, often prioritizing the desire to move freight at any reasonable cost. Motor carriers, in contrast, are more sensitive to price. To test these qualitative assessments, we regress monthly state-level truckload spot market data from the contiguous 48 states on the UTCI in reduced-form two-way fixed effects specifications, finding that a one-standard-deviation increase in climate shocks increases freight prices by 1.9%, with minimal effects on freight volume, indicating that market adjustments occur primarily through price rather than quantity. We further estimate IV specifications based on three-stage least squares (3SLS) models to disentangle the net causal effects from the reduced form specification. Consistent with our interviews, we find motor carriers are more sensitive than shippers to climate shocks. The results have important implications, offering shippers, carriers, and brokers with concrete price-change benchmarks they can use to budget transportation spend, design contract–spot portfolios, and plan capacity during climate shocks.
{"title":"Climate shock impacts on supply chains: the case of the truckload spot market","authors":"Sara Hsu , Andrew Balthrop , Dan Pellathy , Travis Kulpa , Gonzalo Andrew Ferrada , Joshua Fu","doi":"10.1016/j.tre.2025.104609","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tre.2025.104609","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Climate shocks increasingly disrupt supply chains, yet research has focused primarily on mitigation strategies (i.e., carbon reduction), leaving adaptation strategies comparatively understudied. We begin to fill this gap by studying how transportation managers within a supply chain respond to climate-related shocks, defined as a month in which a state’s exposure to extreme temperature or precipitation events rises significantly, measured by the custom University of Tennessee Climate Index (UTCI), which combines anomalies in high/low temperature and heavy precipitation with population exposure. Drawing on structured interviews with transportation managers, we uncover beliefs that shippers tend to be less demand-responsive in the short-term to climate-related shocks, often prioritizing the desire to move freight at any reasonable cost. Motor carriers, in contrast, are more sensitive to price. To test these qualitative assessments, we regress monthly state-level truckload spot market data from the contiguous 48 states on the UTCI in reduced-form two-way fixed effects specifications, finding that a one-standard-deviation increase in climate shocks increases freight prices by 1.9%, with minimal effects on freight volume, indicating that market adjustments occur primarily through price rather than quantity. We further estimate IV specifications based on three-stage least squares (3SLS) models to disentangle the net causal effects from the reduced form specification. Consistent with our interviews, we find motor carriers are more sensitive than shippers to climate shocks. The results have important implications, offering shippers, carriers, and brokers with concrete price-change benchmarks they can use to budget transportation spend, design contract–spot portfolios, and plan capacity during climate shocks.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49418,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review","volume":"208 ","pages":"Article 104609"},"PeriodicalIF":8.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145940515","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-04-01Epub Date: 2026-01-23DOI: 10.1016/j.tre.2026.104699
Hongtao Hu , Kejian Jiang , Zhu Wang , Jia Shu
Achieving robustness has become an essential issue due to the significant volatility of the logistics networks. Current works prioritize the demand uncertainty, but not sufficiently consider the financial budget uncertainty in warehousing. This deficiency renders the collaborators with weak financial endurance intractable to maintain the scheme robustness, impairing the overall network resilience. Therefore, inspired by the Nash equilibrium, a logistics network design method focusing on capacity sharing is proposed. This method allows participants to share capacity in the distribution centers, improving resilience and reducing costs. Firstly, a two-stage robust model considering the uncertainty of demand and financial budget is established to minimize the operating costs of the logistics network. Then, the Nash equilibrium-based constraints are incorporated into the model to ensure a fair distribution of benefits and costs among participants. Subsequently, a two-stage method is designed with an enhanced column and constraint generation algorithm (CCG) using optimal cut, and reverse Nash equilibrium-based constraints are proposed for the worst financial condition. The effectiveness of the algorithm and model is verified through a series of numerical benchmarks and sensitivity analysis for Nash equilibrium-based constraints, sharing restrictions, uncertainty of demand and financial budget. The results show that the proposed method is efficient and flexible when incorporating capacity sharing and highlighting the influence of the Nash equilibrium-based constraints. Finally, it presents that the Nash equilibrium-based constraints are more suitable for logistics networks through sharing alliances.
{"title":"Enhanced column-and-constraint generation algorithm for robust logistics network design problem with capacity sharing","authors":"Hongtao Hu , Kejian Jiang , Zhu Wang , Jia Shu","doi":"10.1016/j.tre.2026.104699","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tre.2026.104699","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Achieving robustness has become an essential issue due to the significant volatility of the logistics networks. Current works prioritize the demand uncertainty, but not sufficiently consider the financial budget uncertainty in warehousing. This deficiency renders the collaborators with weak financial endurance intractable to maintain the scheme robustness, impairing the overall network resilience. Therefore, inspired by the Nash equilibrium, a logistics network design method focusing on capacity sharing is proposed. This method allows participants to share capacity in the distribution centers, improving resilience and reducing costs. Firstly, a two-stage robust model considering the uncertainty of demand and financial budget is established to minimize the operating costs of the logistics network. Then, the Nash equilibrium-based constraints are incorporated into the model to ensure a fair distribution of benefits and costs among participants. Subsequently, a two-stage method is designed with an enhanced column and constraint generation algorithm (C<span><math><mo>&</mo></math></span>CG) using optimal cut, and reverse Nash equilibrium-based constraints are proposed for the worst financial condition. The effectiveness of the algorithm and model is verified through a series of numerical benchmarks and sensitivity analysis for Nash equilibrium-based constraints, sharing restrictions, uncertainty of demand and financial budget. The results show that the proposed method is efficient and flexible when incorporating capacity sharing and highlighting the influence of the Nash equilibrium-based constraints. Finally, it presents that the Nash equilibrium-based constraints are more suitable for logistics networks through sharing alliances.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49418,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review","volume":"208 ","pages":"Article 104699"},"PeriodicalIF":8.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146033363","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-04-01Epub Date: 2026-01-23DOI: 10.1016/j.tre.2026.104690
Olivia Wang , Zhengyang Li , Cynthia Chen
Motivated by numerous observations that neighbors want to help and be helped by each other, this study investigates the feasibility of a decentralized resource allocation strategy where sharing captains distribute disaster relief resources within their community. Here sharing captains are residents themselves who step up during a disaster and take on the role of sharing/distributing resources with/to their neighbors. Using data from two socioeconomically different communities in Seattle, we simulate and compare the efficacy of the proposed decentralized strategy and the status quo fixed-point distribution method that relies on residents to come and get resources on their own. Our findings reveal that the decentralized approach significantly reduces residents’ deprivation costs (a measure on residents’ suffering due to resource shortage) and reaches 100% resource coverage faster than the fixed-point distribution strategy. For both communities, our experiments suggest that an effective range of sharing captains is between 30 and 40. Though the success of the decentralized strategy lies fundamentally on residents’ willingness to share, a satisfactory outcome can be reached even when a substantial share of residents (40%) are unwilling to share with anybody. This is in contrast to only 3% and 7% of the residents in these two communities who are found to be unwilling to share with anybody. Furthermore, sharing captains’ own biases in distributing resources appear to have a marginal effect on the resource allocation outcomes. On selecting sharing captains, a comprehensive strategy considering multiple factors (sharing preferences, number of social ties, and civic engagement) shall be adopted.
{"title":"The efficacy of decentralized disaster relief resource allocation within communities: The role of community-based sharing captains","authors":"Olivia Wang , Zhengyang Li , Cynthia Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.tre.2026.104690","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tre.2026.104690","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Motivated by numerous observations that neighbors want to help and be helped by each other, this study investigates the feasibility of a decentralized resource allocation strategy where sharing captains distribute disaster relief resources within their community. Here sharing captains are residents themselves who step up during a disaster and take on the role of sharing/distributing resources with/to their neighbors. Using data from two socioeconomically different communities in Seattle, we simulate and compare the efficacy of the proposed decentralized strategy and the status quo fixed-point distribution method that relies on residents to come and get resources on their own. Our findings reveal that the decentralized approach significantly reduces residents’ deprivation costs (a measure on residents’ suffering due to resource shortage) and reaches 100% resource coverage faster than the fixed-point distribution strategy. For both communities, our experiments suggest that an effective range of sharing captains is between 30 and 40. Though the success of the decentralized strategy lies fundamentally on residents’ willingness to share, a satisfactory outcome can be reached even when a substantial share of residents (40%) are unwilling to share with anybody. This is in contrast to only 3% and 7% of the residents in these two communities who are found to be unwilling to share with anybody. Furthermore, sharing captains’ own biases in distributing resources appear to have a marginal effect on the resource allocation outcomes. On selecting sharing captains, a comprehensive strategy considering multiple factors (sharing preferences, number of social ties, and civic engagement) shall be adopted.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49418,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review","volume":"208 ","pages":"Article 104690"},"PeriodicalIF":8.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146033361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study proposes a reinforcement learning (RL)-based framework incorporating the Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) algorithm to improve platelet inventory management. The proposed approach considers an inventory system with varying ordering intervals, incorporating ABO-Rh substitution decisions and hospital collaborations through transshipment. In this framework, transshipment is modeled as a fixed policy, reflecting real-world practices where blood units nearing expiration are proactively transferred from smaller local hospitals to larger hospitals, where they are more likely to be used in time. We extend our analysis by exploring several RL models, including Trust Region Policy Optimization (TRPO) and Soft Actor-Critic (SAC). The results show that PPO-Complete outperforms the other RL models, and all considered RL approaches outperform the base-stock strategy, which is commonly used in hospital platelet inventory management. The analyses indicate that lower transshipment costs, when coupled with effective substitution decisions, lead to a reduction in total cost and enable larger order sizes, thereby mitigating shortages.
{"title":"Platelet inventory management in hospital networks: A reinforcement learning approach","authors":"Shahrzad Valizadeh , Babak Abbasi , Su Nguyen , Zahra Hosseinifard","doi":"10.1016/j.tre.2025.104629","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tre.2025.104629","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study proposes a reinforcement learning (RL)-based framework incorporating the Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) algorithm to improve platelet inventory management. The proposed approach considers an inventory system with varying ordering intervals, incorporating ABO-Rh substitution decisions and hospital collaborations through transshipment. In this framework, transshipment is modeled as a fixed policy, reflecting real-world practices where blood units nearing expiration are proactively transferred from smaller local hospitals to larger hospitals, where they are more likely to be used in time. We extend our analysis by exploring several RL models, including Trust Region Policy Optimization (TRPO) and Soft Actor-Critic (SAC). The results show that PPO-Complete outperforms the other RL models, and all considered RL approaches outperform the base-stock strategy, which is commonly used in hospital platelet inventory management. The analyses indicate that lower transshipment costs, when coupled with effective substitution decisions, lead to a reduction in total cost and enable larger order sizes, thereby mitigating shortages.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49418,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part E-Logistics and Transportation Review","volume":"208 ","pages":"Article 104629"},"PeriodicalIF":8.8,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145995526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}