3. Tactical planning problemsTactic

3. Tactical planning problems
Tactical planning problems deal with optimally utilizing the given infrastructure by choosing services and associated transportation modes, allocating their capacities to orders, and planning their itineraries and frequency. Table 2 and Fig. 3 provide an overview of the literature discussed on tactical planning problems.
Deciding whether to send cargo direct or through a consolidation system entails a tradeoff influenced by system costs, operation times, network structure, and customer requirements.
In the literature on tactical planning problems, mostly hub-and-spoke structures are regarded.
Freight on hub-and-spoke networks is transported by a single service, or a sequence of services where the loads are transferred from one service to the next at intermediate terminals. A service is characterized by its origin, destination,
and intermediate terminals, its transportation mode, route, and its service capacity. Likewise, a mode is characterized by its loading capacity, speed, and price. Usually, these services and modes have fixed costs.