Optimization of Transportation Routes for Electric Container Trucks under Different Charging Modes

With the advancement of energy conservation and emission reduction initiatives at ports, electric container trucks are being increasingly adopted in port collection and distribution logistics. The charging strategy for electric container trucks directly affects their transportation routing. This paper considers three different charging strategies for electric container trucks and develops the optimization models for their transportation routes. An improved genetic algorithm is designed to solve the models. Based on real-world data from Logistics Company Q, an empirical analysis is conducted. The comparison analysis results show that the lowest transportation cost occurs under the rapid battery-swapping mode, followed by the partial charging strategy, while the full charging strategy incurs the highest transportation cost. The sensitivity analysis results show that, under the full charging mode, total distribution costs increase significantly as the delivery time window penalty coefficient rises. Under the partial charging mode, when the charging amount is between 60% and 80% of the battery capacity, the total distribution cost decreases with the increase of the charging amount. However, when the charging amount is between 80% and 100% of the battery capacity, the total distribution cost also exhibits increasing trend. Under the battery-swapping mode, as the rated battery capacity gradually increases from its original level, the total transportation cost gradually decreases. However, it introduces operational challenges, especially time conflicts, which may have a negative impact on the service quality of the transportation company.