The vehicle routing problem with backhauls towards a sustainability perspective: a review

The vehicle routing problem with backhauls (VRPB) allows to integrate inbound and outbound routes, which is an efficient strategy to reduce routing costs and also to reduce the environmental and social impacts of transportation. In this paper, we analyze the VRPB literature with a sustainability perspective, which covers environmental and social objectives, collaborative networks and reverse logistics. First, to better understand and analyze the VRPB literature, all related works are characterized according to a common taxonomy provided for routing problems. This taxonomy is extended to differentiate between economic, environmental and social objectives. After identification of all VRPB papers that include sustainability issues, these are analyzed and discussed in more detail. The analysis reveals that research on VRPBs with sustainability concerns is recent and relatively scarce and the most popular aspects investigated are the minimization of fuel consumption and $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$ emissions. Future research lines driven by sustainability concerns are suggested for the VRPB as a promoter of green logistics.