IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i19p8606-d1757848.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimising Pathology Logistics with Shared-Fleet Passenger and Freight Services: A Case Study on the Isle of Wight, UK

Author

Listed:
  • Ismail Aydemir

    (Transportation Research Group, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 7QF, UK)

  • Tom Cherrett

    (Transportation Research Group, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 7QF, UK)

  • Antonio Martinez-Sykora

    (Southampton Business School, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 7QF, UK)

  • Fraser McLeod

    (Transportation Research Group, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 7QF, UK)

Abstract

This study presents an optimisation algorithm to solve a collaborative vehicle routing problem with time windows. The algorithm was developed and tested on a real-world case study to investigate the potential for a shared-fleet operation involving public organisations, specifically, the Isle of Wight Council (IWC) and the National Health Service (NHS). The aim was to evaluate whether collaborative use of public-sector vehicles could reduce total fleet size, operational costs, and vehicle-kilometres travelled, while maintaining existing service levels. The study develops a two-stage optimisation algorithm that incorporates real-world constraints such as vehicle capacity, time windows, and pre-assigned mandatory stops. The first stage maximises the number of assignable collaborative tasks across fleets, while the second stage minimises the total travel cost conditional on this maximum assignment. Using historical data and a novel optimisation algorithm, vehicle movements were modelled to evaluate benefits in terms of cost savings, reduced CO 2 emissions and vehicle usage. The case study results generated by the algorithm suggested that considerable improvements could be made by integrating patient diagnostic collection rounds into the existing IWC minibus routes: (a 10.6% reduction in CO 2 emissions (644 kg/month) and vehicle kilometres (2300 km/month), a 20.2% reduction in working hours (219 h/month), and a 17.8% saving in cost (GBP (£) 3596/month) leading to IWC gaining a potential additional revenue of GBP (£) 54,829 annually while reducing costs by 22.4% for the NHS. The findings highlighted the potential benefits of shared fleet collaborations between public sector organisations, offering a model for similar collaborations in other public sector contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Ismail Aydemir & Tom Cherrett & Antonio Martinez-Sykora & Fraser McLeod, 2025. "Optimising Pathology Logistics with Shared-Fleet Passenger and Freight Services: A Case Study on the Isle of Wight, UK," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-21, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:19:p:8606-:d:1757848
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/19/8606/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/19/8606/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mancini, Simona & Gansterer, Margaretha & Hartl, Richard F., 2021. "The collaborative consistent vehicle routing problem with workload balance," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 293(3), pages 955-965.
    2. William Ferrell & Kimberly Ellis & Phil Kaminsky & Chase Rainwater, 2020. "Horizontal collaboration: opportunities for improved logistics planning," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(14), pages 4267-4284, July.
    3. Amiri, Mosleh & Farvaresh, Hamid, 2023. "Carrier collaboration with the simultaneous presence of transferable and non-transferable utilities," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 304(2), pages 596-617.
    4. Alix Vargas & Carmen Fuster & David Corne, 2020. "Towards Sustainable Collaborative Logistics Using Specialist Planning Algorithms and a Gain-Sharing Business Model: A UK Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-29, August.
    5. Defryn, Christof & Sörensen, Kenneth & Cornelissens, Trijntje, 2016. "The selective vehicle routing problem in a collaborative environment," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 250(2), pages 400-411.
    6. Ismail Aydemir & Fraser McLeod & Matt Grote & Tom Cherrett, 2023. "Evaluating the Feasibility of a Shared-Fleet Operation in Healthcare Logistics between Public Organisations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-15, October.
    7. Gansterer, Margaretha & Hartl, Richard F., 2018. "Collaborative vehicle routing: A survey," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 268(1), pages 1-12.
    8. Margaretha Gansterer & Richard F. Hartl & Sarah Wieser, 2021. "Assignment constraints in shared transportation services," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 305(1), pages 513-539, October.
    9. Julian Allen & Michael Browne & Allan Woodburn & Jacques Leonardi, 2012. "The Role of Urban Consolidation Centres in Sustainable Freight Transport," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 473-490, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhang, Ruijuan & Dai, Ying & Yang, Fei & Ma, Zujun, 2024. "A cooperative vehicle routing problem with delivery options for simultaneous pickup and delivery services in rural areas," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    2. Hatzenbühler, Jonas & Jenelius, Erik & Gidófalvi, Gyözö & Cats, Oded, 2023. "Modular vehicle routing for combined passenger and freight transport," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    3. Alikhani, Reza & Eskandarpour, Majid & Jahani, Hamed, 2023. "Collaborative distribution network design with surging demand and facility disruptions," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    4. Pilz, Danny & Schwerdfeger, Stefan & Boysen, Nils, 2022. "Make or break: Coordinated assignment of parking space for breaks and rest periods in long-haul trucking," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 45-64.
    5. Justiani Sally & Wibowo Budhi S., 2022. "The Economic and Environmental Benefits of Collaborative Pick-Up in Urban Delivery Systems," LOGI – Scientific Journal on Transport and Logistics, Sciendo, vol. 13(1), pages 245-256, January.
    6. De Moor, Bram J. & Creemers, Stefan & Boute, Robert N., 2023. "Breaking truck dominance in supply chains: Proactive freight consolidation and modal split transport," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    7. Zahra Sadat Hasanpour Jesri & Kourosh Eshghi & Majid Rafiee & Tom Van Woensel, 2022. "The Multi-Depot Traveling Purchaser Problem with Shared Resources," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-26, August.
    8. Jamili, Negin & van den Berg, Pieter L. & de Koster, René, 2022. "Quantifying the impact of sharing resources in a collaborative warehouse," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 302(2), pages 518-529.
    9. Soriano, Adria & Gansterer, Margaretha & Hartl, Richard F., 2023. "The multi-depot vehicle routing problem with profit fairness," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    10. Shichang Xiao & Pan Peng & Peng Zheng & Zigao Wu, 2024. "A Hybrid Adaptive Simulated Annealing and Tempering Algorithm for Solving the Half-Open Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing Problem," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-21, March.
    11. Shitao Yang & Jiangao Zhang & Shaorui Zhou, 2024. "The cost transportation game for collaboration among transportation companies," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 336(3), pages 1479-1503, May.
    12. Margaretha Gansterer & Richard F. Hartl & Sarah Wieser, 2021. "Assignment constraints in shared transportation services," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 305(1), pages 513-539, October.
    13. Santos, Maria João & Curcio, Eduardo & Amorim, Pedro & Carvalho, Margarida & Marques, Alexandra, 2021. "A bilevel approach for the collaborative transportation planning problem," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).
    14. Mancini, Simona & Gansterer, Margaretha & Hartl, Richard F., 2021. "The collaborative consistent vehicle routing problem with workload balance," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 293(3), pages 955-965.
    15. Amiri, Mosleh & Farvaresh, Hamid, 2023. "Carrier collaboration with the simultaneous presence of transferable and non-transferable utilities," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 304(2), pages 596-617.
    16. Zhang, Qihuan & Wang, Ziteng & Huang, Min & Yu, Yang & Fang, Shu-Cherng, 2022. "Heterogeneous multi-depot collaborative vehicle routing problem," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 1-20.
    17. Morteza Salehi Sarbijan & Javad Behnamian, 2025. "Feeder vehicle routing problem in a collaborative environment using hybrid particle swarm optimization and adaptive learning strategy," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 6165-6205, March.
    18. Hanpeng Zhang & Yuxin Wu & Yi Liao & Yuvraj Gajpal, 2020. "Cooperative Strategies in Two-Echelon Rescue Delivery Environment with Accessibility Uncertainty," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-18, July.
    19. Soriano, Adria & Gansterer, Margaretha & Hartl, Richard F., 2022. "Reprint of: The multi-depot vehicle routing problem with profit fairness," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).
    20. Yang, Fei & Dai, Ying & Ma, Zu-Jun, 2020. "A cooperative rich vehicle routing problem in the last-mile logistics industry in rural areas," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:19:p:8606-:d:1757848. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.