A web-based intelligent collaborative logistics management decision support system for enhancing the cost effectiveness of door-to-door delivery

With the rapid development of Customer-to-customer E-Commerce in China, a large number of small- and medium-sized logistics companies (SMLCs) has emerged, which focus on highway transportation between cities. In particular, the co-loading method and the door-to-door service are usually used by SMLCs to further improve profit margin and customer satisfaction. In practice, many SMLCs cannot achieve the overall capacity of their vehicles due to shortage of cargos, whereas others cannot satisfy all customer orders even while overloading their vehicles. In addition, they are confronted with other problems, such as costly freight consolidation and distribution. In the present paper, a web-based intelligent collaborative logistics management decision support system (ICLMDS), consisting of three modules, is proposed to formulate intelligent solutions to these problems. Information on cargos is provided by individual cargo providers in different parts of the city. First, the cargo-to-vehicle matching advisor is initialized to match and recommend suitable cargos to vehicles. Second, an allocate-cargo-to-container optimizer configures the optimal combination of cargos for vehicle consolidation. Finally, the pick-up and delivery routing planning module determines the optimal pick-up and delivery vehicle routes in the cities. By running the ICLMDS on the Internet, the cost of communication, freight consolidation, and transportation is significantly reduced.