Emissions Minimization Vehicle Routing Problem in Dependence of Different Vehicle Classes

This contribution presents a specific objective function referring to sustainability within vehicle routing and it proposes an extension of “green” vehicle routing problems by introducing an inhomogeneous fleet. For the basic problem it is assumed that the amount of CO2 emission depends on the distances to be travelled and on the degree to which the used vehicles are loaded. The goal of minimizing the total travel distance is contrasted with the goal of minimizing the total amount of emission. The basic problem is extended by the availability of various types of vehicles with different capacities and specific fuel consumption. This work includes a mathematical formulation of the extended problem and a small instance that illustrates the problem. Computational experiments for the basic and the extended problem formulation are performed by using CPLEX.