The Online Shortest Path Problem: Learning Travel Times Using A Multi-Armed Bandit Framework

In the age of e-commerce, many logistic companies must operate in large road networks without accurate knowledge of travel times for their specific fleet of vehicles. Moreover, millions of dollars are spent on routing services that do not accurately capture the specific characteristics of the companies’ drivers and the types of vehicles they must use. … Read more

Cooperative locker locations games

More and more people are ordering products online, having their parcels delivered to their homes. This leads to more congestion, which negatively impacts the environment as well as public health and safety. To reduce these negative impacts, carriers can use parcel lockers to consolidate and serve their customers. The implementation of a locker network can, … Read more

Personal Shopper Systems in Last-Mile Logistics

This paper explores the logistics operations of instant grocery delivery services. We specifically concentrate on two widely adopted strategies: Personal Shopper Systems (PSS) and Inventory Owned Delivery Systems (IOD). In the PSS, couriers visit affiliated brick and mortar stores in the delivery area to pick and purchase ordered products and deliver them to customers. Whereas … Read more

Provably High-Quality Solutions for the Meal Delivery Routing Problem

Online restaurant aggregators with integrated meal delivery networks have become more common and more popular in the past few years. Meal delivery is arguably the ultimate challenge in last mile logistics: a typical order is expected to be delivered within an hour (much less if possible), and within minutes of the food becoming ready. We … Read more