Optimization of the simultaneous pickup and delivery vehicle routing problem based on carbon tax
| Published date | 21 October 2019 |
| Pages | 2055-2071 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-02-2019-0102 |
| Date | 21 October 2019 |
| Author | Gaoyuan Qin,Fengming Tao,Lixia Li,Zhenyu Chen |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Optimization of the simultaneous
pickup and delivery vehicle
routing problem based on
carbon tax
Gaoyuan Qin, Fengming Tao and Lixia Li
Chongqing University, Chongqing, China, and
Zhenyu Chen
Chongqing Institute of Quality and Standardization, Chongqing, China
Abstract
Purpose –In order to reduce logistics transportation costs and respond to low-carbon economy, the purpose
of this paper is to study the more practical and common simultaneous pickup and delivery vehicle routing
problem, which considers the carbon tax policy. A low-carbon simultaneous pickup and delivery vehicle
routing problem model is constructed with the minimum total costs as the objective function.
Design/methodology/approach –This study develops a mathematical optimization model with the
minimum total costs, including the carbon emissions costs as the objective function. An adaptive genetic
hill-climbing algorithm is designed to solve the model.
Findings –First, the effectiveness of the algorithm is verified by numerical experiments. Second, the
research results prove that carbon tax mechanism can effectively reduce carbon emissions within effective
carbon tax interval. Finally, the research results also show that, under the carbon tax mechanism, the effect of
vehicle speed on total costs will become more obvious with the increase of carbon tax.
Research limitations/implications –This paper only considers the weight of the cargo, but it does not
consider the volume of the cargo.
Originality/value –Few studies focus on environmental issues in the simultaneous pickup and delivery
problem. Thus, this paper constructs a green path optimization model, combining the carbon tax mechanism
for the problem. This paper further analyzes the impact of carbon tax value on total costs and carbon
emission; at the same time, the effect of vehicle speed on total cost is also analyzed.
Keywords Low carbon, Environmental degradation, Global warming, Vehicle routing problem,
Carbon tax, Adaptive genetic hill-climbing algorithm, Simultaneous pickup and delivery
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The increasing global warming and environmental degradation have aroused widespread
concern in the world (Xue et al., 2017). In order to slow down the bad development trend of
the environment, developing a low-carbon economy has become a global consensus (Liu
et al., 2011), which is an inevitable choice to achieve sustainable development of the economy
and environment. However, energy consumption and carbon emissions have increased
rapidly due to China’s efforts to develop the economy in recent decades (Chen et al., 2016). At
the Copenhagen Climate Summit, China committed that carbon intensity would be reduced
to 40–45 percent by 2020, which is lower than that reported in 2005 (Yi et al., 2011).
According to the global carbon emissions data, carbon emissions from road transport
account for about 10 percent (Piecyk and McKinnon, 2010). Logistics, involving a large
amount of road transport, plays a crucial role in the low-carbon development since it
generates massive energy consumption and carbon emissions (He et al., 2017). Therefore,
low-carbon logistics is critical to achieve a low-carbon economy.
In practical logistics distribution, many customers have both pickup and delivery
requirements, and for logistics companies, simultaneous pickup and delivery service for
customers can effectively reduce costs and improve transportation efficiency (Wang, 2016).
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 119 No. 9, 2019
pp. 2055-2071
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-02-2019-0102
Received 25 February 2019
Revised 9 June 2019
23 August 2019
Accepted 12 September 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm
2055
Pickup and
delivery
vehicle routing
problem
Therefore, the simultaneous pickup and delivery distribution is a common phenomenon.
A simplified diagram of simultaneous pickup and delivery distribution is shown in Figure 1.
From Figure 1, we can see that the transportation mode provides both unloading and pickup
services to each customer, which causes the vehicle’s load to remain at relatively large state
compared with single delivery or single pickup in the entire distribution process, thereby
causing more fuel consumption and generating more carbon emissions (Xiao et al., 2012).
Many studies have pointed out that reasonable path planning can effectively reduce carbon
emissions (Wang et al., 2017; Shen et al., 2018; Li et al., 2018; Qin et al., 2019). Therefore, it is
necessary to optimize the path of the simultaneous pickup and delivery to achieve a
win–win situation for economic and environmental benefits.
The carbon tax mechanism is an effective carbon reduction policy (Duan et al., 2014).
However, there is almost no literature on green path optimization under the carbon tax
policy (Demir et al., 2014). Hence, this paper introduces the carbon tax mechanism into this
model to calculate carbon emissions costs. Besides, other cost items consist of fixed costs of
vehicles, transportation costs and penalty costs. Therefore, a low-carbon simultaneous
pickup and delivery vehicle routing problem (LCSPDVRP) model is constructed with the
minimum total costs as the objective function.
This paper is organized as follows: a literature review of related work is presented in
Section 2. The model formulation is proposed in Section 3. An adaptive genetic hill-climbing
algorithm (AGHCA) is described in Section 4. The experimental design and results analysis
are discussed in Section 5. Finally, conclusions are presented in Section 6.
2. Literature review
The simultaneous pickup and delivery vehicle routing problem (SPDVRP) is based on
customer’s need for simultaneous pickup and delivery to generate reasonable distribution
solutions under a series of constraints, thereby achieving certain goals.
For the research concerning the SPDVRP, scholars have made some contributions. Min
(1989) isthe first scholar to propose theSPDVRP. He carried out the updateoperation mode for
the problem of pickup and delivery books in library, established the SPDVRP mathematical
model and thensolved the model with a two-phase heuristicalgorithm. Halse (1992)conducted
a depth studyof SPDVRP in a single distribution center anddesigned an improved three-OPT
algorithm to solve the model. Dethloff (2001) also established a SPDVRP mathematicalmodel
and proved thatthe model can greatly reducethe logistics distributioncost. Fermin and Tang
(2006) considered the maximumtravel distance constraintof the vehicle and designeda hybrid
tabu search algorithm to solve the model. Hou and Hong (2010) formulated a stochastic
programing model with uncertain demand and travel time, with simultaneous pickups and
Depot
Custome
r
Vehicle
Route
Picking Unloading
Figure 1.
A simplified diagram
of the simultaneous
pickup and delivery
distribution
2056
IMDS
119,9
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