Optimization of Truck-Drone Collaborative Distribution Routes in Rural E-commerce Last-mile Logistics

MA Jia; LI Tongyan; LI Chulian

doi:10.19554/j.cnki.1001-3563.2026.05.027

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Packaging Engineering ›› 2026, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (5) : 245-256. DOI: 10.19554/j.cnki.1001-3563.2026.05.027

Green Packaging and Circular Economy

Optimization of Truck-Drone Collaborative Distribution Routes in Rural E-commerce Last-mile Logistics

MA Jia, LI Tongyan, LI Chulian

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Abstract

In response to the practical needs arising from severe challenges faced by last-mile logistics in rural areas, such as high delivery difficulty, substantial operating costs, and low delivery efficiency, the work aims to construct a truck-drone collaborative delivery route optimization model targeted at minimizing total delivery costs and design a two-stage optimization algorithm framework based on this model. In the first stage, a hybrid genetic algorithm incorporating adaptive large neighborhood search was designed to solve the truck route problem under load constraints. In the second stage, an adaptive K-medoids clustering method was proposed to perform adaptive clustering of customer nodes, determine drone launch nodes, and optimize drone delivery routes. Subsequently, collaborative re-optimization of truck routes and drone routes was conducted to achieve optimal control of delivery costs. Experimental results based on different-scale instances demonstrated that the proposed solution method outperformed traditional methods and the CPLEX solver in terms of optimization performance and universality. An efficient last-mile logistics system tailored to the development needs of rural e-commerce is developed in this study, offering theoretical underpinnings and practical guidelines for reducing distribution costs and enhancing distribution efficiency.

Key words

truck-drone collaborative delivery / two-stage algorithm / adaptive K-medoids clustering method / collaborative optimization

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MA Jia, LI Tongyan, LI Chulian. Optimization of Truck-Drone Collaborative Distribution Routes in Rural E-commerce Last-mile Logistics[J]. Packaging Engineering. 2026, 47(5): 245-256 https://doi.org/10.19554/j.cnki.1001-3563.2026.05.027

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