Egalitarian and utilitarian approaches in the green logistics of multimodal grain’s transportation

Abstract

A multi-agent approach is proposed in the complex researches time and cost indicators of multimodal freight transportation on the railway loop, carried out in the direction of the port unloading stations. Along with the traditional subjects of the transportation process, such as the infrastructure owner, the carrier, the operator company (the rolling stock owner), the logistics company and clients (consignors and cargo’s owners), a “green logistics” agent is introduced. This agent is a concept that accumulates forms of manifestation of a conscious attitude of society to the environment in transport and logistics activities. Based on the assessment of the transport and technological railway loop infrastructure and the cost of transport services, a mathematical model of the freight transportation process is built, which is a multi-criteria transport problem. The choice of objective functions and constraints in the task is aimed at, first of all, taking into account the diverse interests of the agent “green logistics”. The algorithm for solving the problem, presented in the form of an integer programming problem, is based on the fundamental principles of the egalitarian and utilitarian approaches in the welfare theory. The implementation of the corresponding calculations for the grain transportation is performed in the environment of the computer mathematics system.