Towards automated Physical Internet system: Simulations of two privacy-protecting routing protocols

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to address the trust issue that leads to reluctance to share data within the logistics sector. This paper leverages the latest logistics paradigm concept Physical Internet (PI), and introduces two decentralised routing protocols for PI, focusing on their performance and impact on privacy by minimising data sharing. We use Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations to evaluate the effectiveness of the protocols in optimising route quality, monetary costs and external costs in a realistic business setup on the Belgian scale. In addition, a sensitivity analysis was performed to assess the impact of response delays in a logistics network. Our research demonstrates the possibility of sharing less data without compromising the optimality of routes. We find that at our problem scale, trucks are the preferred mode when only considering monetary costs. Our findings also illustrate the significant impact of response delays and the handling capacity of intermodal hubs on the efficiency of route planning and the need for automation to improve PI systems’ reliability. We further suggest that trust issues should become one of the primary focuses for the current stage of PI research.