A tabu search algorithm for the periodic vehicle routing problem with multiple vehicle trips and accessibility restrictions

Authors: Alonso, F¹; Alvarez, M J¹; Beasley, J E²

Source: Journal of the Operational Research Society, Volume 59, Number 7, 23 July 2008 , pp. 963-976(14)

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Abstract:

In this paper, we consider a periodic vehicle routing problem that includes, in addition to the classical constraints, the possibility of a vehicle doing more than one route per day, as long as the maximum daily operation time for the vehicle is not exceeded. In addition, some constraints relating to accessibility of the vehicles to the customers, in the sense that not every vehicle can visit every customer, must be observed. We refer to the problem we consider here as the site-dependent multi-trip periodic vehicle routing problem. An algorithm based on tabu search is presented for the problem and computational results presented on randomly generated test problems that are made publicly available. Our algorithm is also tested on a number of routing problems from the literature that constitute particular cases of the proposed problem. Specifically we consider the periodic vehicle routing problem; the site-dependent vehicle routing problem; the multi-trip vehicle routing problem; and the classical vehicle routing problem. Computational results for our tabu search algorithm on test problems taken from the literature for all of these problems are presented.Journal of the Operational Research Society (2008) 59, 963-976. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602405 Published online 18 April 2007

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: 1Universidad de Navarra, San Sebastián, Spain 2: 2Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK

Publication date: 2008-07-23