Horizontal collaboration in freight transport: concepts, benefits, and environmental challenges

Abstract

Since its appearance in the 1990s, horizontal collaboration (HC) practices have revealed themselves as catalyzers for optimizing the distribution of goods in freight transport logistics. After introducing the main concepts related to HC, this paper offers a literature review on the topic and provides a classification of best practices in HC. Then, the paper analyses the main benefits and optimization challenges associated with the use of HC at the strategic, tactical, and operational levels. Emerging trends such as the concept of 'green' or environmentally-friendly HC in freight transport logistics are also introduced. Finally, the paper discusses the need of using hybrid optimization methods, such as simheuristics and learnheuristics, in solving some of the previously identified challenges in real-life scenarios dominated by uncertainty and dynamic conditions.