Distribution Route Optimization for Electric Vehicles in Urban Cold Chain Logistics for Fresh Products under Time-Varying Traffic Conditions

Electric vehicles (EVs) have been widely used in urban cold chain logistic distribution and transportation of fresh products. In this paper, an electric vehicle routing problem (EVRP) model under time-varying traffic conditions is designed for planning the itinerary for fresh products in the urban cold chain. The object of the EVRP model is to minimize the total cost of logistic distribution that includes economic cost and fresh value loss cost. To reflect the real situation, the EVRP model considers several influencing factors, including time-varying road network traffic, road type, client’s time-window requirement, freshness of fresh products, and en route queuing for charging. Furthermore, to address the EVRP, an improved adaptive ant colony algorithm is designed. Simulation test results show that the proposed method can allow EVs to effectively avoid traffic congestion during the distribution process, reduce the total distribution cost, and improve the performance of the cold chain logistic distribution process for fresh products.