Optimization of regional delivery of fresh products

The deterioration loss of fresh products is often severe in the operation of fresh products delivery. With comprehensive consideration of difference in perishability and value between different fresh products, the challenge of fresh products delivery is how to determine the vehicle routes to minimize the total deterioration instead of the traditional shortest distance. We present a novel model that total deterioration with consideration of time window and fresh products characteristics. The total deterioration is related to the quantity, deterioration rate in different environment, and different perishability of fresh products. Then, we compared our model with traditional short-route model. Also, a heuristic algorithm is used to solve the fresh products delivery. By real-life case study involving fresh agricultural products in metropolitan area of Shanghai in China, we prove that our approach can reduce 11.8% in total deterioration compared with the traditional short-route model. Although a certain cost was wasted, the deterioration of fresh products is greatly reduced.