The Organization of Fruit Collection Transport in Conditions of Extreme Rurality: A Rural CVRP Case

Routing under rural conditions is a technical and logistical challenge. In classic vehicle routing, the objective is to minimize traveled distances that reduces transportation costs, mainly approximated as Euclidean. However, the type and performance of the vehicle, and the condition of the roads, must be correlated to generate realistic models. A mathematical model, based on mixed-integer programming, is proposed to determine the cost of transportation in rural conditions. The novelty of the research arises on introducing different types of roads and then circulation conditions and a global cost structure function. The study area is a rural Municipality, from Cauca-Colombia. A real intervention-research case study is defined, modelled and optimized using a commercial solver. After a fourteen-month intervention, a computational experiment is generated, which establishes only five routes. Thus, a total transportation cost of $ USD 1,546.98 is obtained with the proposed model, which supposes a reduction of 29% with respect to the transport system before the intervention.