PhD defence M.A. (Matthijs) van Zon

We focus on collaborations among logistic service providers concerned with the transportation of goods. Collaborative efforts include combining delivery requests, merging delivery routes or serving new customers which are too large for a single logistic service provider to serve on its own. Such collaborations are known to provide numerous benefits including reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, traffic congestion and monetary costs. In order to form such a collaboration, the logistic service providers need to determine a combined logistic planning as well as a fair allocation of the cost resulting from the collaboration.

First, we consider a setting in which the combined logistic planning is determined by using a single shared algorithm. For this case, we present novel algorithms to efficiently determine fair cost allocations. These algorithms enable us to determine such allocation for much larger collaborations than could be considered previously.

Second, we consider a novel setting. We consider a setting in which the combined logistic planning is determined by using the existing algorithms of logistic service providers. By considering these algorithms, we are able to determine cost allocations where both the cost of each transport request and the savings resulting from each algorithm is taken into account. The latter has not been done before. This novel modelling approach allows to also consider consultants and quantify their value to a logistic collaboration.

The public defence will take place at the Senate Hall, 1st floor Erasmus Building, location campus Woudestein. The ceremony will begin exactly at 10.30 AM. In light of the solemn nature of the ceremony, we recommend that you do not take children under the age of 6 to the first part of the ceremony.