The Vehicle Routing Problem holds a central place in distribution management. In the classical version of the problem the aim is to distribute goods to a set of geographically dispersed customers under a cost minimization objective and various side constraints. In recent years a number of researchers have started investigating the joint minimization of cost and greenhouse emissions in vehicle routing, giving rise to the so-called “Pollution-Routing Problem”. Whereas cost depends primarily on distance travelled, emissions are a function of distance, vehicle load, speed and a variety of other factors. The aim of this talk is to describe recent research results in this context. (With the support of INESC-Coimbra.)
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