System Hub and Spoke
With Hub and Spoke systems, a transfer of goods for regional distributors takes place at predefined transshipment sites along major high-traffic roads. Hub defines the transshipment site, with Spoke defining the flow of goods to/from Hub.
Brief description
The application of the logistic flow principle requires the transfer of goods from the source (sender) all the way down to the downstream (receiver) as directly and without obstacles as possible. With consistent application of this principle, there should be as direct a transport as possible between the network points in the relationship. The resulting structure is referred to as a grid/raster structure.
The number of connections can be strongly reduced by surface grouping of the goods stream and introduction of transshipment sites (Hubs). With such a configuration, individual demand points will not be directly connected with each other, more often shipping and receiving points are connected with one or more central transshipment points.
The introduction of a single, central Hub makes it possible to reduce the number of connections to two transports (source - Hub, Hub - final point) The implementation of a multi-Hub system makes it possible to take advantage of the high degression effect for this, by placing transport equipment with higher capacity on the relations between Hubs.