A bi-objective multi-commodity model for multimodal transportation of hazardous materials: A case study of Turkey

The fact that hazardous materials, which can cause damage to the living creatures and the environment due to their chemical or physical characteristics, have been used in many sectors in recent years so the importance of transportation of hazardous materials is on the rise. Despite the fact that railway and maritime transportation are superior in terms of risk and cost, the highway is widely used for the transportation of hazardous materials in our country. This study, which focuses on the transportation of fuel constitutes a significant part of the transportation of hazardous materials, a bi-objective multi-modal multi-commodity model consisting of a combination of highway, railway and seaway is proposed. The model aims at minimizing the total transportation cost and total transportation risk between supply and demand points. First, the minimum cost and minimum risk values for the unimodal transportation model, which is currently widely used, and for the proposed multimodal transportation model are obtained and then the values related to preemptive goal programming models for cost priority and risk priority are obtained using GAMS/CPLEX optimization software by collecting the necessary data from organizations within Republic of Turkey Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications, fuel distribution companies and logistics companies for application of the proposed models in Turkey. Finally, Turkey's fuel distribution networks are drawn by using ArcGIS software.

Automated summary

This study focuses on fuel transportation and proposes a multi-objective multi-modal multi-commodity model aiming to minimize total transportation cost and total transportation risk. By using GAMS/CPLEX optimization software, the cost and risk values of the unimodal and multimodal transportation models are obtained, and preemptive goal programming models for cost priority and risk priority are applied. Additionally, Turkey's fuel distribution networks are mapped using ArcGIS software.