The Value of Preemptive Pick-Up Services in Dynamic Vehicle Routing for Last-Mile Delivery: Space-Time Network-Based Formulation and Solution Algorithms
Table 17
Definitions of some key modeling elements.
Concept
Definition
Decision epoch
The moment when pick-up requests are captured, acceptance/rejection decisions are made, and new routing plan is obtained.
Preemptive service
Delivery people can interrupt delivery process whenever pick-up requests occur. Therefore, they can visit physical nodes for more than once to complete the remaining orders.
Pick-up request
A type of high-utility request that appears during service.
Delivery request
A type of low-utility request that appears before service.
Served physical nodes
A type of physical nodes that all requests are satisfied.
Serving physical nodes
A type of physical nodes that delivery people are working on.
To-be-served physical nodes
A type of physical nodes that no requests or partial requests are satisfied.
