Vehicle routing problem with cross-docking in a sustainable supply chain for perishable products

Abstract Today's transportation, which is primarily based on the combustion of fossil fuels, contributes significantly to energy-related GHG emissions which is one of aspects of sustainability. Incorporating sustainable concerns in cross-dock scheduling can affect decision making for logistics systems. In the current contribution, a sustainable vehicle routing problem with cross-docking is presented. In addition to the economic considerations, this paper addresses the environmental impacts of CO2 emissions and the social impacts, including equity between drivers as well as customer satisfaction. A metaheuristic, composed of GA and mixed integer programming, is proposed as the solution approach. For validating the presented method, instances of various sizes are solved. The results of the GA in small-sized instances, has a small deviation from the optimal fitness values. Finally, a real case study is provided to demonstrate the applicability of the model in a real-world environment, and several in-depth analyses are conducted to infer managerial implications.