Collaboration among different agents is an effective way to improve logistic operations.When companies transport items of similar assortments withinthesame regions,there arehigh potential of efficiency improvements. Large volumes and long distances,incombination withincreasing fuel prices and environmental concern, enhancetheimportanceof exploiting synergies between companies.Inthecontext of collaboration, twoessentialquestions arise: (1) Whichcoalitions can be expected to form? (2) How shouldthecompanies allocatetheachieved benefits?We aim to find optimal solutions for both questions by formulating linear programmingmodels using OperationsResearch. We addressthefirst question by finding howthecompanies should groupinorder to achievethehighest savings,both fromasocial plannerpoint of view and fromtheindividual company’s point of view. Assumingthatoptimalcoalitionstructures are identified,thenext question concerns howthemembersinacoalitionshould distributethecostsavings.There are numerous of acknowledgedallocationmethodsaiming to find a fair solution to this question. Weinvestigate five different methods, and findstriking resultsinterms of disparities betweentheallocations. For one company,therelativesaving achieved ranges from 2.96% to 18.75% depending on which method we implement.We alsodiscuss fundamental questionsconsideringtheaspect of fairnessinthedifferentallocationmethods.When approaching the question from the perspective of each company, wecombineconceptsofthe different allocation methods and construct a new model to find optimalcoalition structures.Based on different assumptions regarding the behavior of companies,the model provides twosets of coalition structures.
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