Distance and Capacity Constrained Vehicle Routing in Distribution Networks: A New Branch-and-Cut-and-Price Heuristic
This paper presents a new local search heuristic for the Distance and Capacity Constrained Vehicle Routing Problem (DCVRP). The problem involves estimation of the smallest possible number of vehicles required to visit a number of nodes exactly once and identification of the vehicle routes that minimize the total distance of the tours. The suggested heuristic uses a branch-and-cut-and-price approach to the problem, which provides efficient and reliable solutions in complex networks with a large number of pickup and delivery nodes. The heuristic produces quality solutions by reducing the number of searchable node combinations, from N! to approximately 2N. The output consists of a set of complete routes that minimise total cost. Results on a problem of contagious waste collection prove that the suggested heuristic yields feasible solutions in short computing times. A quick DCVRP heuristic producing good solutions can be very helpful to policy makers whose aim is to promote rational and cost-efficient local development plans. It is also useful to logistics companies that provide pickup and delivery services and want to make effective use of their resources.
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Availability:
- Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/22324968
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Supplemental Notes:
- © 2013 Konstantinos Panou et al.
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Authors:
- Panou, Konstantinos
- Proios, George
- Kapros, Seraphim
- Publication Date: 2013-12
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: Figures; References; Tables;
- Pagination: pp 1-11
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Serial:
- Logistics & Sustainable Transport
- Volume: 4
- Issue Number: 1
- Publisher: De Gruyter Poland
- ISSN: 2232-4968
- Serial URL: https://sciendo.com/journal/JLST
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Publication flags:
Open Access (libre)
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Heuristic methods; Highway capacity; Optimization; Routing; Trip length; Vehicle fleets
- Uncontrolled Terms: Vehicle routing problem
- Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Vehicles and Equipment; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01549491
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: TRIS
- Created Date: Jan 2 2015 10:15AM