Vehicle routing problems for city logistics

Abstract

This paper surveys the vehicle routing problems met in cities for good distribution. It applies the following methodology. First, it gives an overview of the literature devoted to vehicle route optimization in cities. Then, it classifies and analyses urban logistic flows. As a result, it identifies the principal scientific challenges that need to be addressed: time-dependency, multi-level and multi-trip organization of the distribution, dynamic information. Finally, it focuses on each one of these challenges, analyses the main difficulties they imply and how they are treated in the literature.