Design and sensitivity analysis of dry port transportation network using hub location

By increasing population and consequently the increasing demand for freight, proper design of transport networks is increasingly important. Given this, the use of hubs in the transport network with indirectly connection between the source and destination nodes significantly reduces costs and the number of routes. To transform the country into a commercial hub, the development of logistics centers, including dry ports with an international approach, can be fruitful. One of the main features of the hub is the indirect connection of the nodes of origin to the destination, which increases the shipment time, but sometimes causes corruption of the goods. In this study, the design of a transport network has been focused on dry port location, which makes the hub location model flexible by allowing direct connection from source to destination. The mathematical model presented is solved using CPLEX in Gams. Then, by analyzing the sensitivity of the number of ports, it was emphasized the necessity of creating dry ports to reduce transportation costs.