Squires, John (University of Tennessee, Knoxville), Kaplan, Marcella (University of Tennessee, Knoxville), Heaslip, Kevin (University of Tennessee Knoxville)

Real-World Impacts of the Parallel Scheduling Vehicle Routing Problem in Rural Environments

Scheduled for presentation during the Regular Session "S45a-Decision-Making for Urban Air Mobility and Autonomous Logistics" (FR-LM-T45), Friday, November 21, 2025, 11:50−12:10, Gold Coast

2025 IEEE 28th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), November 18-21, 2025, Gold Coast, Australia

This information is tentative and subject to change. Compiled on October 18, 2025

Abstract

The last-mile delivery problem in rural areas faces higher costs and environmental impacts than in urban areas. In this study, the performance of the Parallel Scheduling Vehicle Routing Problem (PSVRP)—an advanced delivery routing system utilizing electric vans, autonomous delivery vehicles, drones, and truck-drone combinations—is studied in rural settings. To analyze real-world potential, the PSVRP is modeled in real-world rural scenarios, comparing cost and emissions with traditional diesel fleets. Additionally, synthetic customer-location models (uniform and clustered) are assessed on how well they approximate real-world instances. Using minimal fleet sizes, the PSVRP was found to reduce real-world costs by 50-58% and emissions by 39-46% compared to diesel fleets. The uniform distribution adequately approximated modeled real-world costs (within 6-8%), whereas clustered distributions consistently underestimated costs and emissions. This study demonstrates the PSVRP’s economic and environmental benefits in rural settings and highlights the ability of uniformly distributed theoretical scenarios to approximate real-world conditions.