Multi-Objective Last-Mile Vehicle Routing Problem for Fresh Food E-Commerce: A Sustainable Perspective

Abstract

Last-mile logistics poses a pivotal challenge for the sustainable prosperity of fresh food e-commerce. However, there has been insufficient research attention towards optimizing the last-mile vehicle routing from three sustainable dimensions simultaneously based on triple-bottom-line. To narrow this gap, this paper proposes a multi-objective last-mile vehicle routing model for fresh food e-commerce, which takes the three sustainable dimensions as independent objectives. The economic and environment objectives are minimizing the total cost and carbon emission, respectively. For social dimension, a nonlinear function is proposed based on the Prospect theory, which quantifies customers’ satisfaction when they perceive delivery time. Then the social objective is described as maximizing customers’ satisfaction. Subsequently, the model is solved by the nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II and validated by a numerical experiment. Based on the experiment results, this paper recommends that logistics enterprises should prioritize the trade-off among the three sustainable dimensions.