Cooperative routing and scheduling of an electric vehicle fleet managing dynamic customer requests

Environmental issues and consumer concerns have paved the way for governments to legislate and help usher into operation alternative-fueled vehicles and pertinent infrastructures. In the last decade, battery-powered electric vehicles have been introduced and the service industry has followed suit and deployed such trucks in their distribution networks. However, electric vehicles do impose limitations when it comes to their traveling range. Replenishing the power to the vehicle batteries may entail lengthy charging visits at respective stations. In this paper, we examine the problem of routing and scheduling a fleet of electric vehicles that seek to satisfy dynamic pickup and delivery requests in an urban environment. We develop a web application to facilitate cooperation between organizations and individuals involved in urban freight transport. The application uses geolocation services and mobile devices to help manage the fleet and make timely decisions. Moreover, we propose three heuristic recharging strategies to ensure that electric vehicles can restore their energy levels in an effective manner. Through detailed experimentation, we show that the costs associated with the use of an electric vehicle fleet concern mainly the size of the fleet. The impact regarding the total route length traveled is less evident for all our strategies. © Springer International Publishing AG 2016

A Methodological Concept for Supporting the Commercialization of Electric Vehicles towards Sustainable Urban Freight Transport

Employment of Electric Commercial Vehicles (ECVs) constitutes a measure to achieve sustainable Urban Freight Transport (UFT). Despite a need for ECVs, the commercialization of ECVs in UFT has remained relatively low, which is reflected in the low market penetration. To increase the market penetration, much attention has been paid to four areas, which are the feasibility of ECVs, adaptions of logistics concepts, adaptions of vehicle concepts, and support of stakeholders. Besides studying these four areas, obtaining a satisfactory match between characteristics of ECVs and preferences of UFT is also an area for increasing the market penetration. However, due to the shortage of academic studies and appropriate tools that can systematically guide decision-makers in UFT to obtain a satisfactory match, little attention has been paid to this area. The present dissertation proposed a methodological concept, namely Sustainable ECV-UFT Matching Concept, to deal with the outlined problem. This concept comprises two methodologies (methodology of assessment and methodology of determination). Since matching up the ECVs and UFT generates many possibilities (denoted as ECV-UFT combinations), the methodology of assessment was developed to help decision-makers to assess the diverse ECV-UFT combinations quantitatively in the economic, social, and environmental perspective. Subsequently, the methodology of determination was developed to analyze the assessment results and support decision-makers in determining the satisfactory match from the many possibilities. In addition, this dissertation implemented this methodological concept by designing a simulation platform, which includes an available database and corresponding mathematical expressions. Three scenarios (DCV-, BEV-, and HEV-Express/post) were applied in the simulation platform to analyze the proposed methodological concept. The results confirmed that the Sustainable ECV-UFT Matching Concept is feasible in supporting decision-makers to determine the satisfactory match from the many ECV-UFT combinations. The benefits of obtaining a satisfactory match may inspire corresponding decision-makers to consider the employment of the appropriate ECVs in their UFT markets. This consideration may subsequently facilitate the market penetration of ECVs to achieve sustainable UFT. Overall, the main contribution of this dissertation is the development of a methodological concept to support the commercialization of ECVs for achieving sustainable UFT