The routing problem of an innovative urban freight distribution scheme

The paper refers to an innovative urban freight distribution scheme, aimed at reducing the externalities\nconnected with the freight delivery process. Both packages destined to commercial activities and to private\nconsumers (e-commerce) are taken into account. Packages are firstly delivered to urban distribution centers\n(UDCs) on the border of urban areas; each package is characterized by an address and dimensions. FURBOT\nboxes are consolidated in the UDC with these packages. Each box is addressed to a temporary unloading bay and\nit is delivered there by a FURBOT vehicle. The FURBOT vehicle has a capacity of 2 boxes. The paper focuses\non the problem of choosing the couple of boxes to be loaded on each vehicle and on the related choice of the\nroute to be assigned to each vehicle: from the UDC to the first stop where the first box should be unloaded, to the\nsecond stop where the second box should be unloaded, and then back to the UDC. A methodology for the\nspecific routing problem is proposed and its application to the case study of Genoa city centre is presented.