A green perspective on capacitated time-dependent vehicle routing problem with time windows

TL;DR

This paper introduces a green vehicle routing model that minimizes emissions and fuel use while considering time-dependent factors and schedules, solved efficiently with a simulated annealing algorithm.

Contribution

It develops a novel time-dependent vehicle routing model incorporating environmental factors and proposes an effective heuristic solution method.

Findings

Solutions are within 3.5% of optimal for small/mid-sized problems.

Large problem solutions are obtained in about one-tenth of exact method time.

The approach effectively reduces fuel consumption and emissions.

Abstract

This study presents a novel approach to the vehicle routing problem by focusing on greenhouse gas emissions and fuel consumption aiming to mitigate adverse environmental effects of transportation. A time-dependent model with time windows is developed to incorporate speed and schedule in transportation. The model considers speed limits for different times of the day in a realistic delivery context. Due to the complexity of solving the model, a simulated annealing algorithm is proposed to find solutions with high quality in a timely manner. Our method can be used in practice to lower fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions while total route cost is also controlled to some extent. The capability of method is depicted by numerical examples productively solved within 3.5% to the exact optimal for small and mid-sized problems. Moreover, comparatively appropriate solutions are obtained for large problems in averagely one tenth of the exact method restricted computation time.