A Multicriteria Analysis for the Green VRP: A Case Discussion for the Distribution Problem of a Spanish Retailer

[EN] This research presents the group of green vehicle routing problems with environmental costs translated into money versus production of noise, pollution and fuel consumption. This research is focused on multi-objective green logistics optimization. Optimality criteria are environmental costs: minimization of amount of money paid as externality cost for noise, pollution and costs of fuel versus minimization of noise, pollution and fuel consumption themselves. Some mixed integer programming formulations of multi-criteria vehicle routing problems have been considered. Mathematical models were formulated under assumption of existence of asymmetric distance-based costs and use of homogeneous fleet. The exact solution methods are applied for finding optimal solutions. The software used to solve these models is the CPLEX solver with AMPL programming language. The researchers were able to use real data from a Spanish company of groceries. Problems deal with green logistics for routes crossing the Spanish regions of Navarre, Basque Country and La Rioja. Analyses of obtained results could help logistics managers to lead the initiative in area of green logistics by saving money paid for environmental costs as well as direct cost of fuel and minimization of pollution and noise.This work has been partially supported by the National Research Center (NCN), Poland (DEC-2013/11/B/ST8/04458), by AGH, and by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (TRA2013-48180-C3-P and TRA2015-71883-REDT), and the Ibero-American Program for Science and Technology for Development (CYTED2014-515RT0489). Likewise, we want to acknowledge the support received by the CAN Foundation in Navarre, Spain (Grants CAN2014-3758 and CAN2015-70473)Sawik, B.; Faulin, J.; Pérez Bernabeu, E. (2017). A Multicriteria Analysis for the Green VRP: A Case Discussion for the Distribution Problem of a Spanish Retailer. Transportation Research Procedia. 22:305-313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2017.03.037S3053132

Multi-Criteria Optimization for Fleet Size with Environmental Aspects

[EN] This research concerns multi-criteria vehicle routing problems. Mathematical models are formulated with mixed-integer programming. We consider maximization of capacity of truck vs. minimization of utilization of fuel, carbon emission and production of noise. The problems deal with green logistics for routes crossing the Western Pyrenees in Navarre, Basque Country and La Rioja, Spain. We consider heterogeneous fleet of trucks. Different types of trucks have not only different capacities, but also require different amounts of fuel for operations. Consequently, the amount of carbon emission and noise vary as well. Companies planning delivery routes must consider the trade-off between the financial and environmental aspects of transportation. Efficiency of delivery routes is impacted by truck size and the possibility of dividing long delivery routes into smaller ones. The results of computational experiments modeled after real data from a Spanish food distribution company are reported. Computational results based on formulated optimization models show some balance between fleet size, truck types, utilization of fuel, carbon emission and production of noise. As a result, the company could consider a mixture of trucks sizes and divided routes for smaller trucks. Analyses of obtained results could help logistics managers lead the initiative in environmental conservation by saving fuel and consequently minimizing pollution.This work has been partially supported by the National Research Center (NCN), Poland (DEC2013/11/B/ST8/04458), by AGH, and by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (TRA2013-48180- C3-P and TRA2015-71883-REDT), and the Ibero-American Program for Science and Technology for Development (CYTED2014-515RT0489). Likewise, we want to acknowledge the support received by the CAN Foundation in Navarre, Spain (Grants CAN2014-3758 and CAN2015-70473). The authors are grateful to anonymous reviewers for their comments.Sawik, B.; Faulin, J.; Pérez-Bernabeu, E. (2017). Multi-Criteria Optimization for Fleet Size with Environmental Aspects. Transportation Research Procedia. 27:61-68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2017.12.05661682

The role of operational research in green freight transportation

Recent years have witnessed an increased awareness of the negative external impacts of freight transportation. The field of Operational Research (OR) has, particularly in the recent years, continued to contribute to alleviating the negative impacts through the use of various optimization models and solution techniques. This paper presents the basic principles behind and an overview of the existing body of recent research on ‘greening’ freight transportation using OR-based planning techniques. The particular focus is on studies that have been described for two heavily used modes for transporting freight across the globe, namely road (including urban and electric vehicles) and maritime transportation, although other modes are also briefly discussed

Internalizing negative externalities in vehicle routing problems through green taxes and green tolls

Road freight transportation includes various internal and external costs that need to be accounted for in the construction of efficient routing plans. Typically, the resulting optimization problem is formulated as a vehicle routing problem in any of its variants. While the traditional focus of the vehicle routing problem was the minimization of internal routing costs such as travel distance or duration, numerous approaches to include external factors related to environmental routing aspects have been recently discussed in the literature. However, internal and external routing costs are often treated as competing objectives. This paper discusses the internalization of external routing costs through the consideration of green taxes and green tolls. Numeric experiments with a biased-randomization savings algorithm, show benefits of combining internal and external costs in delivery route planning.Peer Reviewe

On green routing and scheduling problem

The vehicle routing and scheduling problem has been studied with much interest within the last four decades. In this paper, some of the existing literature dealing with routing and scheduling problems with environmental issues is reviewed, and a description is provided of the problems that have been investigated and how they are treated using combinatorial optimization tools

Multi-objective Vehicle Routing Problem with Cost and Emission Functions

AbstractAmong the logistics activities, transportation, is presented as a major source of air pollution in Europe, generating harmful levels of air pollutants and is responsible for up to 24% of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions in the European Union. The growing environmental concern related to the economic activity has been transferred to the field of transport and logistics in recent decades. Therefore, environmental targets are to be added to economic targets in the decision-making, to find the right balance between these two dimensions. In real life, there are many situations and problems that are recognized as multi-objective problems. This type of problems containing multiple criteria to be met or must be taken into account. Often these criteria are in conflict with each other and there is no single solution that simultaneously satisfies everyone. Vehicle routing problems (VRP) are frequently used to model real cases, which are often established with the sole objective of minimizing the internal costs. However, in real life other factors could be taken into account, such as environmental issues. Moreover, in industry, a fleet of vehicles is rarely homogeneous. The need to be present in different segments of the market, forcing many companies to have vehicles that suit the type of goods transported. Similarly, to have vehicles of different load capacities enables a better adaptation to the customer demand. This paper proposes a multi-objective model based on Tchebycheff methods for VRP with a heterogeneous fleet, in which vehicles are characterized by different capacities, costs and emissions factors. Three objective functions are used to minimize the total internal costs, while minimizing the CO2 emissions and the emission of air pollutants such as NOx. Moreover, this study develops an algorithm based on C&W savings heuristic to solve the model when time windows are not considered. Finally, a real case application is analyzed to confirm the practicality of the model and the algorithm