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The emergence of battery electric trucks (BETs) in recent years has shown great promise in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in urban freight logistics. However, designing a customer-oriented dispatching strategy for a BET fleet is more complex than traditional vehicle routing problems (VRP) due to several constraints, such as limited driving range, potential need for en route recharging, and long recharging times. Also, in practice, the uncertain travel times in urban transportation network may lead to the violation of scheduled customer time windows and impact overall energy consumption. To better utilize the BET fleet, this paper introduces a robust BET dispatching problem with backhauls and time windows under travel time uncertainty, which aims to minimize the overall fleet energy consumption while also minimizing the risk of violating customer time window. A mathematical optimization model based on novel route-related sets is developed, and an adaptive large neighborhood search (ALNS) metaheuristic algorithm is used to find robust dispatching solutions. Based on real-world data from a truck fleet in San Bernardino County, California, a simulation study is conducted to demonstrate the robustness of the solutions obtained by the proposed method. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis with respect to uncertainty parameters is performed to assess the trade-off between the overall fleet energy consumption and the robustness of the solutions.
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This content will become publicly available on November 1, 2025
Bi-Objective Battery Electric Truck Dispatching Problem with Backhauls and Time Windows
The battery electric truck (BET) has emerged as a promising solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in urban logistics, given the current strict environmental regulations. This research explores the formulation and solution of the bi-objective BET dispatching problem with backhauls and time windows, aiming to simultaneously reduce environmental impacts and enhance the efficiency of urban logistics. From the sustainability perspective, one of the objectives is to minimize total energy costs, which include energy consumption and battery replacement expenses. On the other hand, from an economic perspective, the other objective is the minimization of labor costs. To solve this bi-objective BET dispatching problem, we propose an innovative approach, integrating an adaptive large neighborhood search-based metaheuristics algorithm with a multi-objective optimization strategy. This integration enables the exploration of the trade-off between fleet energy expenses and labor costs, optimizing the dispatching decisions for BETs. To validate the proposed dispatching strategy, extensive experiments were conducted using real-world fleet operations data from a logistics fleet in Southern California. The results demonstrated that the proposed approach yields a set of Pareto solutions, showcasing its effectiveness in finding a balance between energy efficiency and labor costs in urban logistics systems. The findings of this research contribute to advancing sustainable urban logistics practices and provide valuable insights for fleet operators in effectively managing BET fleets to reduce environmental impacts while maintaining economic efficiency.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2152258
- PAR ID:
- 10584660
- Publisher / Repository:
- Journal of the Transportation Research Board
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
- Volume:
- 2678
- Issue:
- 11
- ISSN:
- 0361-1981
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1850 to 1862
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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