Abstract
The paper presents a freight transport network equilibrium model with an urban cooperative delivery system explicitly being incorporated. The model takes into account the decentralised decision-making of shippers, consumers, and freight carriers as well as their interaction. These are mathematically formulated, and the equilibrium conditions to be governed in the whole network are derived. Two types of freight carriers are involved in the system, a consigned one and a contracted one, where the former fully or partly consigns the urban goods delivery to the latter. The model endogenously determined the amount of goods transported/delivered, and the carriages incurred for the carrier-operated and cooperative transport/delivery. Numerical examples are then undertaken, not only to validate the performance of the model, but to investigate the key factors for successfully implementing the cooperative system, focusing on the facility costs generated in delivery depots as well as on the vehicle operation costs incurred for the goods delivery in urban areas.
