Contract design for the fourth party logistics considering tardiness risk

Nowadays, tardiness has become a significant risk in the logistics industry. To address this problem, we introduce the tardiness risk index to quantify both the magnitude of the tardiness risk and the maximum probability of tardiness occurring. In this paper, we investigate the contract design problem with the tardiness risk index to mitigate the tardiness risk when a fourth-party logistics company (4PL) delegates the delivery task of a client to a third-party logistics company (3PL). Specifically, the contracts are designed in a decentralized system with information symmetry and information asymmetry when 3PL is risk neutral and risk averse. Furthermore, the incentive problems demonstrated that the 3PL is encouraged to make the optimal effort for delivery and the 4PL determines the optimal fixed payment and penalty coefficient. Through analyzing the experimental simulation results, we can find that the contract can effectively mitigate the tardiness risk and the maximum probability of risk occurrence.

Financial Security Analysis of E-Commerce Platform Based on Supply Chain for Heterogeneous Network Location Verification

The development of supply chain finance, its pricing strategy for bilateral business cooperation between e-commerce, banking institutions, and fourth-party logistics services providers has gained the attention of researchers. This paper combines the heterogeneous network location verification technology, starting from information asymmetry and Rubens bargaining game ideas, and combines it with game theory methods to provide a reference for bilateral cooperation decision-making on e-commerce platforms. The experiment results indicated the pricing decisions of e-commerce platforms which are affected by the efforts of the other party and the ability of bargaining. The quoted price increases with the decrease of the bank’s ability and the increase of the service provider’s ability. The pricing decisions of banks and service providers are only affected by the direct proportion of their respective business costs. When considering the introduction of incentive mechanism conditions, it is found that appropriate incentive conditions can increase the quotation of the e-commerce platform. The price quoted by the e-commerce platform that chooses to bargain with the bank is higher than the price quoted by the bank after negotiating with the service provider, which will help to better realize the benefits. Finally, the paper numerically analyzes the results of the bargaining game between e-commerce platforms and banks and fourth-party logistics service providers, and the numerical results verify the better performance.

Research on Green Transport Mode of Chinese Bulk Cargo Based on Fourth-Party Logistics

Due to the problems such as the excessive proportion of road transport and extreme carbon emission situation of China’s transport structure adjustment, this paper combines the fourth-party logistics with the bulk cargo green transport. It is advancing the adjustment of China’s bulk cargo transport structure using fourth-party logistics. This paper improves the particle swarm optimization algorithm to compare the integrated cost and carbon emissions of different bulk fourth-party transport networks to verify the benefits of the fourth-party logistics on bulk cargo transport networks’ cost reduction and emission reduction. The results show that using the fourth-party logistics model to promote the transfer of cargoes from road to rail can reduce the integrated cost of the transport network, reduce carbon emissions, and achieve green transport.

Distribution Network for the Last Mile of Cross-Border E-business in a Smart City at Emerging Market in Response to COVID-19: A Key Node Analysis Based on a Vision of Fourth Party Logistics

This research studies the development of distribution networks for the last mile distribution for cross-border E-business based on a vision of fourth party logistics (4PL) in smart cities in emerging markets in response to COVID-19. This research analyzes the distribution centers of distribution companies in Beijing city using fuzzy cluster analysis as a case study of smart cities. The location decision for distribution centers to serve cross-border E-business is further analyzed by considering the local conditions of the distribution centers. The solutions to the location decisions for distribution centers in different cases are further visualized by 2-mode networks. The key nodes in the distribution network of the last mile for cross-border E-business are further studied based on fourth-party logistics by a immune algorithm. Cross-border E-business value creation based on the development of distribution networks using fourth-party logistics is further discussed. The location distribution of key nodes can spread from the downtown district to suburban areas as the coverage of the distribution network is expanded. This research can help managers and decision makers address the last mile distribution for cross-border E-business in smart cities in emerging markets based on a vision of fourth-party logistics in response to COVID-19.

A Two-Stage Auction Mechanism for 3PL Supplier Selection under Risk Aversion

The third party logistics (3PL) suppliers selection is a key issue in sustainable operation of fourth party logistics (4PL). A two-stage auction mechanism is designed for the selection of 3PL suppliers. Different from previous studies, the paper considers risk preference of 4PL integrators during the auction and uses the prospect theory to establish the auction scoring function of 4PL integrators. First, a first score sealed auction (FSSA) mechanism is used to solve the selection problem. However, the results show that FSSA is not an ideal method. Hence, the English auction (EA) mechanism is combined with the FSSA mechanism to form a two-stage auction. The FSSA is taken as the first stage auction, and the EA is taken as the second stage auction, and the two-stage auction mechanism is constructed. The two-stage auction can improve the utility of the 4PL integrator and the auction efficiency. In addition, for the degree of disclosure of attribute weights in the scoring function, two states, complete information and incomplete information is designed. In case analysis, the validity of the designed two-stage auction mechanism is verified. The 4PL integrator can obtain higher utility under the risk-neutral auction than the risk-averse auction. The complete information auction does not make the 4PL integrator obtain higher utility than the incomplete information auction.

Research on the Risk of the Fourth Party Logistics Enterprise Based on the Tripartite Cooperation Model under the Background of Made in China 2025: A Case Study of XCompany

Under the background of "made in China 2025", China's logistics development ushered in new opportunities, which put forward newer and higher requirements for the transformation and upgrading of the logistics industry.The fourth party logistics enterprise is a supply chain integrator.At present, there is a kind of fourth party logistics enterprise based on tripartite cooperation and operation mode in China. That is, fourth party logistics enterprises combine transportation enterprises withinsurance companies, and meanwhile rely on logistics information platform to carry out safety management of freight vehicles. In fact,in the process of tripartite cooperation, there are many uncertain factors, which bring multiple risks to the fourth party logistics enterprises. This paper studies and analyzes the risks faced by the fourth party logistics enterprises, in order to determine the important risk factors, so as to provide decision-making reference for the fourth party logistics enterprises to avoid risks. Firstly, this paper identifies the specific risks in the environment, cooperation, finance and management of the tripartite cooperation model from the internal, external and partnership dimensions, and reveals the mechanism of the risks. Secondly, the analytic hie-rarchy process (AHP) is used to calculate the comprehensive weight of each risk index, and the fuzzy synthetic evaluation method is used to determine the probability of risk. Finally, the overall risk level of X Company is ob-tained by establishing an evaluation matrix and weighting calculation according to the membership relationship between the evaluation matrix and the index weight. The results show that: from the perspective of the dimension of risk importance, cooperation risk and financial risk have the highest risk weight in the second-level index; in the third-level index, the behavioral risk of transportation enterprise, working capital risk and insurance company have the highest risk weight, while the weight of natural risk and political risk is lower. In the dimension of risk generation probability, inter-industry competition risk, transportation enterprise behavior risk, insurance company behavior risk and working capital risk are in the higher probability.

Fourth party logistics firm assessment using a novel neutrosophic MCDM

The fourth party logistics (4PL) is an combiner that designs and implements the holistic supply chain solutions by using skills, knowledge, technology and resources of the service provider and its customer. A 4PL provider is also a technological service provider with eligible intellectual capital and the sufficient computer/software infrastructure. Defining the most appropriate 4PL service provider from the alternatives is not easy for companies, the solution can be addressed within the framework of the Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problem, and subjective and uncertain data are required for this solution. “Fuzzy set theory” is a helpful tool for dealing with such subjectivity and uncertainty. In recent times, extensions of fuzzy sets have been evolved to address and describe the subjectivities and uncertainties more widely. Neutrosophic sets are one of the extensions of fuzzy sets, and unlike other extensions, they use the independent indeterminacy-membership function, thereby extracting important information and improving the accuracy of the decision-making process. A neutronophic MCDM method was proposed for the assessment of 4PL providers’ performance. In the application part of the study, neutrosophic language scale was used by three experts to evaluate the performance of 4PL providers. Then the closeness coefficient of each alternative was computed and sequenced in descending order. We also presented a comparative analysis with neutrosphic TOPSIS method. The results determined that the proposed neutrosophic MCDM method could be used in the performance evaluation of 4PL providers and similar problems.