Does Drop and Pull Transport Have a Chance? The Case of China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Please see feedback on the changes required on the attached document.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

The overall language of the article is of a sufficient standard. There are only a few areas that need editing as shown in the text.

Author Response

Dear Reviewers and Editor:

We sincerely thank you for your valuable comments on our manuscript. These comments have immensely improved the quality of our manuscript. We have checked the comments carefully and have included the main corrections in the manuscript and the responses to the comments, which we hope meet with your approval. The answers or explanations are written in blue, and the newly added contents are in dark red; additionally, the modifications in detail are highlighted in dark red in the manuscript.

The report is attached.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

In this work, the authors have explored the potential for drop and pull transport in the context of freight industry in China.

Introduction: The authors have done a good job in presenting the motivation of this work, highlighting the advantages of drop and pull freight transport over the conventional truck transport.

Literature Review: The authors have well presented the literature in the context of drop and pull freight, the gaps in the existing literature, and to that end, the objectives of this work and the associated novelty.

Methodology: The authors here present formulations to develop threshold freight demand values to establish profitability (Q^*) and competitiveness (Q^#) of drop and pull transport with traditional truck transport. However, in doing so the authors make an implicit assumption that for all Q > Q^* drop and pull transport is profitable. And likewise for Q > Q^# drop and pull transport is more profitable in comparison to traditional truck transport. Yet, such linear relationships are not clearly established, and in fact it is possible that with the give amount of resources, there exists a Q', wherein for all Q > Q', drop and pull transport makes loss. Can the authors elaborate on the implicit assumptions made in this work.

Empirical Results: The authors here developed a numerical study for Liaoning Province with a freight network encompassing 5 cities, namely, Shenyang, Anshan, Benxi, Liaoyang Dengta, and Liaozhong. This is an extremely small case study, and the conclusions drawn from such a case study can be very sensitive to the assumed parameter values. And therefore, the authors must carry out sensitivity analysis for the assumed parameters to develop more robust inferences.

Overall, considering the comments here, I believe, this work must undergo major revision before a final decision can be made.

Author Response

We sincerely thank you for your valuable comments on our manuscript. These comments have immensely improved the quality of our manuscript. We have checked the comments carefully and have included the main corrections in the manuscript and the responses to the comments, which we hope meet with your approval. The answers or explanations are written in blue, and the newly added contents are in dark red; additionally, the modifications in detail are highlighted in dark red in the manuscript.  The report is attached.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

I am happy with the changes made by the authors.

The overall standard of English used throughout the document is sufficient. However, it does require minor editing for grammatical errors.