Integrated routing of heavy electrical and diesel trucks in forest transports

Abstract Fossil‐free forestry transports are important to reach climate goals. In Sweden, road transports account for around 50% of the industry's CO 2 emissions and almost 20% of the road freight volumes. Previous studies have shown that electrification is a cost‐effective way for carbon abatement, while at the same time the requirements for flexibility in routing make electrification of forestry transport challenging. The current trend is to introduce more electrical vehicles in different sectors. However, there are challenges for the forest industry, including long distances, heavy weights, multiple shifts, and a lack of recharging stations. We propose an analytical decision tool that solves an integrated vehicle routing problem. This model includes detailed energy consumption and recharging requirements for each route generated. The solution method consists of phases where we first identify full truckloads and then generate a set of generic routes. These are later used to construct routes for individual trucks. The coordination to find the best route for each truck is found by solving a mixed integer programming model. We use a case study to analyze the impact of an increasing proportion of electrical trucks.