A systematic evaluation of freight carrier response to receiver reordering behaviour

Results indicate that narrowing time windows could result in delivery and penalty cost increases of up to 93%. Extending unloading times can see costs and penalties increase by up to 111%. Delivery frequency (and therefore order quantity) also has a major impact of the carrier's cost, with cost increases of up to 142% when requesting more frequent deliveries of smaller quantities. These results confirm that carrier decisions are influenced significantly by changes in receiver reordering behaviour and unnecessary constraints imposed by receivers during reordering could have significant negative implications on the delivery cost of the carrier. This emphasises the importance of finding a balance between restrictions set by supply chain customers during reordering and the cost associated with those restrictions and highlights the importance of finding ways to urge freight agents, especially receivers, to change their current behaviour to lower the total delivery cost of the supply chain.