Colloquium: Jorrit Spaargaren (C&O)

Efficient last-mile delivery is critical in the evolving e-grocery sector. This work presents TOET (Tailored Optimisation for E-grocery Transport), a framework that addresses the multifaceted challenges of e-grocery logistics. TOET combines advanced metaheuristic techniques with adaptive penalty mechanisms to manage heterogeneous fleets, multi-capacity constraints, and strict time windows within a unified vehicle routing framework. Simulation studies on real-world dispatch plans show that TOET reduces runtime and overall delivery duration compared to the benchmark VROOM algorithm. Although this comes with a modest increase in the number of routes, the notable reduction in drive times highlights its potential for more effective route planning. These findings confirm the viability of a state-of-the-art optimisation approach while indicating key areas for future enhancement, particularly in scalability and real-time adaptability.

Supervisor: Alessandro Bombelli