Fourth party logistics location-routing problem

The fourth party logistics location-routing problem(4PL-LRP) is studied in this paper. Based on the 4PL- LRP, a mixed-integer programming model is proposed to identify the locations of distribution centers, to select proper third party logistics, to realize the assignment of third party logistics from the supply source to the distribution centers, and to accomplish the vehicle routing of third party logistics from distribution centers to the customers. Through introducing a set of flow-variables and flow-constraints, the proposed model can be solved by CPLEX. Numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the 4PL-LRP model in the application of the distributor storage with last- mile delivery from the perspective of the fourth party logistics.