Freight Routing for Efficient, Sustainable and Reliable Travel

The goal of this research is to develop and evaluate routing models for efficient transportation that (1) aim to reduce travel time, (2) provide reliable paths against disruptions, and (3) factor in the emissions resulting from a given path. Specifically, the freight vehicle routing problem in this research is investigated in three aspects. The first investigation considers risk-averse freight routing problems, in which traffic conditions are treated with uncertainty (e.g., uncertain travel time or speed) and as such truck drivers are assumed as risk-averse; that is, they always prefer the expectation of a random return to the random return itself. In this research context, a random return is the random travel time itself. The second investigation incorporates microscopic vehicle operating features in an eco-routing problem. And the third investigation attempts to fill the literature gap by investigating the more realistic sustainable vehicle routing strategies by considering the joint effect of commercial vehicle load and speed on energy consumption or pollutant emissions or both. Major findings and policy implications are discussed in detail in the report.