A Green Vehicle Routing Problem

A Green Vehicle Routing Problem (G-VRP) is formulated and solution techniques are developed to aid organizations with alternative fuel-powered vehicle fleets in overcoming difficulties that exist as a result of limited vehicle driving range in conjunction with limited refueling infrastructure. The G-VRP is formulated as a mixed integer linear program. Two construction heuristics, the Modified Clarke and Wright Savings heuristic and the Density-Based Clustering Algorithm, and a customized improvement technique, are developed. Results of numerical experiments show that the heuristics perform well. Moreover, problem feasibility depends on customer and station location configurations. Implications of technology adoption on operations are discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.