For the planning and operation of distribution activities in urban regions, Crainic and Laporte [10]
classified the various decisions and management policies according to the three planning levels: 1)
Strategic (long term) planning at the firm level typically involves the highest level of management and
requires large capital investments over long time horizons; 2) tactical (medium term) planning aims to
ensure, over a medium term horizon, an efficient and rational allocation of existing resources in order to
improve the performance of the whole system; and, 3) operational (short term) planning is performed by
local management (masters of city distribution location and dispatchers, for example) in a highly dynamic
environment where the time factor plays an important role and detailed representations of vehicles,
facilities and activities are essential. In strategic planning, location models studied include: covering
models, centre models and median models, network design models, and regional multimodal planning.
Tactical planning research includes: service network design for inter-modal transportation and vehicle
routing problems. Dynamic model to support carrier operations and capacitated routing with uncertainties
are studied for operational issues. Van Binsbergen and Visser [11] Analyse, develop possible solutions for
the problems related to urban goods distribution, and establish an integrated concept for an efficient goods
distribution process for urban areas. The authors also develop a comprehensive policy plan for
implementing effective policy measures, which aims at improving the efficiency of the goods distribution
process for urban areas. Toth and Vigo [12] studied the branch-and-bound algorithms for the capacitated
(with the weight or volume limitation) vehicle routing problem. Ljungberg and Gebresenbet [13] mapped
out city centre goods distribution in Uppsala, Sweden, in order to investigate the potential for coordinated
goods distribution to reduce cost, congestion and environmental impact. Qualitative and quantitative data
were collected using questionnaires, interviews and measurements at loading and unloading zones for
retail shops.
For the capacity utilization for urban vehicles, Morris et al. [14] analyzed data from 74 “Freight
Mobility Interviews”—surveys conducted with key transportation executives whose products and services
are shipped into New York City’s central business district (CBD). Quantitative data collected included
company profiles, defined by product category; kind of transportation service; type of distribution channel;
characteristics of dispatched truck trip; and time and cost for last leg of the trip.
What we shall do in this paper is to carry out the research on the aspect of the transhipment platforms
for the city logistics organization. Namely, how to select the most suitable location among the
transhipment sites with the given similar distance, and the ordered preference method is used to get the
suitable solution.