A multi-objective two-echelon vehicle routing problem. An urban goods movement approach for smart city logistics

Current trends of urbanization and growing economies bring with them rising levels of traffic congestion and city governments must recur to new strategies to deal with such problems. Multi-level distribution is an already-known strategy employed by businesses, and the classic formulation of the Two-Echelon Vehicle Routing Problem (2E-VRP) reflects the perspective of a single provider, without regarding the routing decisions of other parties. The lack of coordination between providers executing their individual schedules and, consequently, the lack of a holistic approach to urban traffic may cause further problems. Additionally, the various stakeholders (government, businesses, residents) may have conflicting objectives. The main contribution of this paper is a first-time multi-objective formulation of the multi-provider (or multi-commodity) heterogeneous vehicle 2E-VRP, from a city government perspective within an Urban Goods Movement context, demonstrating with didactic examples the potential benefit of this approach to all parties involved, simultaneously considering potentially conflicting objectives.