Towards the physical internet paradigm: A model for transportation planning in complex road networks with empty return optimization

The Physical Internet paradigm is redesigning the logic of moving goods around the planet, with the goal of making logistics more effective, sustainable and efficient. In this paper a road transportation network devoted to the PI paradigm is designed, modeled and implemented. The problem deals with groupage transportation, including consolidation and deconsolidation centers in the network nodes where goods are loaded/unloaded in/out from containers. The goal is to serve the demand of some shipment orders belonging to different areas with the final goal of minimizing total costs, exploiting trucks capacity and reducing empty trips. A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model is presented and an experimental analysis is provided. The results obtained have shown the effectiveness of the approach proposed.