Determination of Major barriers in adoption of Electric Trucks in Logistics System
Transportation Sector consumes more than 20% of the total Energy consumed by Human Activity and big chunk of the required energy is obtained from fossil fuels. Usage of fossil fuels brings extra cost of import and adverse effects on Environment. Conventional delivery trucks cause their local (Traffic congestion, Emissions of Particulate matter,NOx, Elemental carbon, organic carbon and noise pollution etc.) and global (Green House Gas Emissions) environmental impacts, directly affecting the residents of urban areas. Electric mobility is a novel mode of transport. Electric trucks are more cost efficient than traditional ICT (Internal Combustion Trucks) in longer journeys. Incorporation of ET (ElectricTrucks) in logistics system can significantly reduce the emissions of freight transportation.
Electrification of urban freight transport significantly reduces the harmful environmental impact provided that the companies have excess to fast charging plug or battery swapping opportunity. Electrification process is suffering from economic, operational, environmental competitiveness and infrastructure issues. Detailed study of literature review (last 10 years) has revealed that most of the works is addressing only one of these barriers. It has been suggested many times to consider the opinions of industrial and institutional experts into consideration. While most of the researches were either literature review based on the theoretical identification of barriers or case study of a particular geographical territory.
This research gap has been identified. A survey will be conducted among the stakeholders (Professionals from Logistic companies like JSI Logistics, RSI Logistics and Academic institutes) and institutional experts (Researchers from Institutes). Response recorded then will be analyzed by Multi-criteria analysis to identify the major barriers. This paper will also find an optimal solution for vehicle routing problem (VRP) and electric chargers siting problem (ECSP). Identified barriers and trip travel data of the logistic vehicles will be then used to find optimal routes. The network of already existing charging stations, possible future stations and potential candidate sites based on trip travel data will then be considered. Some assumptions for quantification of barriers will also be incorporated to find an optimal solution for VRP and ECSP simultaneously.
