Work

Study of Fair Strategy for Merchant Self-Operated Takeaway Delivery Based on Delivery Plan Optimization

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: With the increasing demand for takeaway delivery, more merchants are developing their takeaway delivery system to manage order fulfillment and enhance the consumer online experience. This study presents a mathematical model for merchant-operated takeaway delivery, using an improved ant colony algorithm integrated with K-means to cluster customer locations and determine optimal routes. We propose two fairness strategies—order quantity and travel distance—to ensure equitable workload distribution among riders. The K-means algorithm is enhanced by reallocating cluster assignments based on the nodes’ distances to all cluster centers. The simulation results demonstrate that the designed algorithm and strategies generate efficient optimal delivery plans for merchants.

Source: Applied Sciences

DOI: 10.3390/app15126650

Authors: Jing Chen, Chengbo Guo, Jiahua Kou, Jiali Du, Shufa Sun, Yanling Guo

Institution: Northeast Forestry University

Language: English

Topic: Vehicle Routing Optimization Methods

Subfield: Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,896

Funders: National Natural Science Foundation of China, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities