n: The number of customers that the depot needs to serve. K: The number of refrigerated truck owned by the depot. Q: The maximum load capacity of refrigerated truck. P: The price of the unit commodity. 𝑓𝑘 : Fixed cost of refrigerated truck k. 𝑑𝑖𝑗 : The distance between customers i and j. 𝑐𝑘𝑖𝑗 : The cost of per kilometer when the refrigerated truck k driving from customer i to customer j. t: The delivery time required for distribution. ∂ : The spoilage rate of product. 𝑄𝑖𝑛 : The number of products remaining on board when the refrigerated truck leaving customer i. 𝑡𝑠𝑖 : The time required for a refrigerated truck to serve customer i. 𝑞𝑖 : The demand of customer i. 𝐶𝑒 : The refrigeration costs which generate during transportation process of unit time. 𝐶′𝑒 : The refrigeration costs which generate during unloading process of unit time. 𝑤𝑖 : The unloading time which is needed when refrigerated truck k serves the customer i. 𝑡𝑘𝑖𝑗 : The traveling time of the refrigerated truck k from the customer i to the customer j. 𝑡𝑘𝑖 : The time point when the refrigerated truck k reaches the customer i. 𝜏 : The unit cost of shortage of cold chain product. 𝜇1 : The cost of waiting for the unit time if refrigerated truck arrives at customer node in advance. 𝜇2 : The cost of punishing for the unit time if refrigerated truck is late to the customer node. [𝐸𝑇𝑖, 𝐿𝑇𝑖] : The time window that the customer i expects to be served. [𝐸𝐸𝑇𝑖, 𝐸𝐿𝑇𝑖] : The service time window that the customer i can accept. 𝑆𝑘 : The actual load of refrigerated truck k. 𝑁𝑘 : The actual demand of the customer nodes that the refrigerated truck k serves. 𝜌 : The fuel consumption of per unit distance when the vehicle is running. 𝜌∗ : The fuel consumption of per unit distance when the vehicle is fully loaded. 𝜌0 : The fuel consumption of per unit distance when the vehicle is empty. 𝑄𝑖𝑗 : The load capacity of the refrigerated truck when it travels between customer i and customer j. 𝑒𝑜 : The coefficient values of CO2 emission. 𝜔 : The carbon emission that generate from distributing unit weight cargoes during driving unit distanc (kg·km) . 𝐶0 : The carbon tax of per unit of carbon emissions. 𝑌𝑘 is a 0–1 variable, 𝑌𝑘=1 if the vehicle k of depot is used, otherwise 𝑌𝑘=0 . 𝑥𝑘𝑖𝑗 is a 0–1 variable, 𝑥𝑘𝑖𝑗=1 if the vehicle k passes the road between customer i and customer j, otherwise 𝑥𝑘𝑖𝑗=0 . 𝑦𝑘𝑖 is a 0–1 variable, 𝑦𝑘𝑖=1 if the vehicle k services for customer i, otherwise 𝑦𝑘𝑖=0 .The cold chain logistics VRP in this paper belongs to a type of vehicle routing problem. The VRP model of cold chain logistics considering carbon footprint is proposed to realize the path selection of low-carbon distribution. Carbon emissions in the process of cold chain distribution generate from the vehicles fuel consumption as well as from refrigeration equipment. If we only put the minimum carbon emissions as the optimization goal, it is pointless for logistics enterprises. Therefore, the objective function is not to minimize the carbon emissions or fuel consumption, but to use comprehensive cost minimum as objective function when we establish the mathematical model. The costs of optimization mainly include: the fixed costs which generate in distribution process of vehicle, transportation costs, damage costs in the process of distribution, refrigeration costs, penalty costs, shortage costs and carbon emission costs.