Selecting a Location for a City Logistics Facility: A Fuzzy Synthetic Evaluation Method

Abstract

The strategic location of city logistics facilities may help to establish more efficient urban logistics systems, reduce social and environmental costs of urban freight transport, and improve urban traffic conditions. In addition, it may allow a number of shippers or freight carriers to jointly operate freight vehicles and terminals or information systems while allowing them to have the capability to provide higher levels of services to their customers. This paper considers the problem of selecting a location for a city logistics facility while considering linguistic factors. This paper identifies the important factors in the selection of a location for a city logistics facility by performing a case study which applies the analytic hierarchy process method on data from Chongqing, China. The optimal location in Chongqing is then determined by using the fuzzy synthetic evaluation method. The results of this paper are expected to help municipal governments select appropriate locations for city logistics facilities and quantify the advantages and disadvantages of alternative locations.