Efficient solutions for the Green Vehicle Routing Problem with Capacitated Alternative Fuel Stations

In this paper, we propose a metaheuristic approach for efficiently solving the Green Vehicle Routing Problem with Capacitated Alternative Fuel Stations (G-VRP-CAFS). The G-VRP-CAFS, a variant of the traditional G-VRP, aims at routing a fleet of Alternative Fuel Vehicles (AFVs), based at a common depot, in order to serve a set of customers, minimizing the total travel distance. Due to the limited autonomy of the AFVs, some stops at Alternative Fuel Stations (AFSs) may be necessary during each trip. Unlike the G-VRP, in the G-VRP-CAFS, the AFS capacity, in terms of fueling pumps that are simultaneously available, is realistically assumed limited. For such a problem, we design an Iterated Local Search algorithm, in order to obtain good quality solutions in reasonable amount of time also on real-life alike case studies. Preliminary results, carried out on a set of benchmark instances taken from the literature, are promising.