Date/Time
Date(s) - January 06, 2020
11:45 am - 12:35 pm
Location
406 Weil Hall
Categories
Junyu Cao
University of California, Berkeley
Abstract: Last-Mile Shared Delivery: A Discrete Sequential Packing Approach
We propose a model for optimizing the last-mile delivery of n packages from a distribution center to their final recipients, using a strategy that combines the use of ride- sharing platforms (e.g., Uber or Lyft) with traditional in-house van delivery systems. The main objective is to compute the optimal reward offered to private drivers for each of the n packages such that the total expected cost of delivering all packages is minimized. Our technical approach is based on the formulation of a discrete sequential packing problem, in which bundles of packages are picked up from the warehouse at random times during the interval [0, T]. Our theoretical results include both exact and asymptotic (as n->\infty) expressions for the expected number of packages that are picked up by time T. They are closely related to the classical Rényi’s parking/packing problem. Our proposed framework is scalable with the number of packages.