Vehicle routing to minimizing hybrid fleet fuel consumption

Abstract

In this paper, we address a variant of the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) where the fleet contains vehicles that not only vary in performance, but this variation is a function of the arc type, such that a given vehicle might have costs lower on some arcs but higher on others. We refer to this as the Hybrid Fleet Vehicle Routing Problem. This is more realistic than the common assumption that all vehicles are identical. In many cases, fleets are made up of different vehicle types, varying in size, engine/fuel type, and other performance-impacting factors. Even in a homogeneous fleet, vehicles often differ by age and condition, which can greatly impact performance. We propose two heuristic methods that take into account the vehicle-specific cost structures. We provide computational results to demonstrate the quality of our solutions, and a comparison with a Genetic Algorithm based method.