A novel mathematical approach for the truck-and-drone location-routing problem

Abstract

During the last decade, e-commerce has increased last-mile deliveries, impacting the (CO2) emissions footprint. Considering this environmental impact, sustainable technologies have emerged for transport operations, e.g., drones and electric vehicles. This paper deals with the Location-Routing Problem for delivering orders to a set of customers. The problem aims to minimize the total CO2 emissions due to freight transportation in last-mile deliveries with Trucks-and-Drones. A mathematical model is proposed for solving the problem. We test the model in different scenarios varying the number of clients (between 10 and 25), the number of trucks and drones (between 4 and 12 and between 5 and 13, respectively), and the available depots (i.e., between 5 and 15 parking lots). Our results provide insights on how shifting to cleaner transportation technologies can aid in the reduction of the carbon footprint of distribution activities and present a preamble of the significant impact that UAVs have in parcel delivery routing problems.