Green vehicle routing problem: Metaheuristic solution with time window

The aim of a Green Vehicle Routing Problem is to find an optimal route for alternative fuel vehicles to minimize the overall travelling distances while reducing energy consumption and CO(2)emissions. In this problem each vehicle handles a subset of customers/orders, leaving from and returning to the depot, with respect to maximum distance travelled, while minimizing energy consumptions. We proposed a time window-based GVRP solution (GVRP-TW) with exact routing approach. Wherein, each route serves a subset of customers/orders with minimum intermediate refuelling/recharges. To test our method, we conducted experiments using MATLAB software on a set of three reference problem specimens (C-101, R-101 and RC-11). Our approach, evaluated on these benchmark problems, par exceeds in performance in relation to the existing VRP methods (like tabu search, variable neighbourhood search, and GRASP). Moreover, the proposed GVRP-TW can be further optimized to solve other VRP problems with energy minimisations and less intermediate stops.