Sustainable transportation planning for a three-stage fixed charge multi-objective transportation problem

In the recent past, sustainability has become a major concern for transportation policies and planning in both developed and developing countries. This paper focuses on transportation sustainability for a three-stage fixed charge transportation problem. The major components of transportation sustainability considered include economical issues, social concerns, environmental concerns, and transportation system efficiency. Another important issue considered from a social point of view is the interrelationships between various customers of an end product, which has several benefits culminating in a healthier bottom line. The approach adopted in this paper consists of two phases, wherein the efficiency of vehicles is evaluated independently on all three parameters of sustainability using the data envelopment analysis technique in the first phase. The second phase consists of optimizing an integrated multi-objective optimization model that utilizes efficiency of the vehicles obtained from the first phase in a benefit criterion, considering the interrelationships among customers in terms of minimizing the independence values, and maximizing total profits along with many real-world constraints. Numerical illustration of a real-world case is included in order to demonstrate the utility of the proposed approach.