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A Two-Stage Heuristic for a Real Multi-compartment and Multi-trip Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows

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Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2021 (ICCSA 2021)

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Abstract

This paper addresses the multi-compartment and multi-trip vehicle routing problem in a fuel distribution company. A decision support system (DSS) to automatically produce daily routing plans was developed. The company delivers three fuel types using a heterogeneous fleet of multi-compartmented vehicles with a maximum capacity expressed in fuel liters. Additional and real constraints are imposed, such as time windows and compulsory breaks. A constructive heuristic based on the Clarke and Wright savings algorithm was adapted in order to embed all business constraints. This constructive heuristic was developed in three steps. In the first step, all the previously mentioned constraints were taken into account. In the second version of the algorithm, the multi-trip case was incorporated. In order to improve the quality of the solution, an exchange of compartments mechanism and two local search procedures were developed. One of the local procedures was based on local search movements within each route, while the other one was based on movements between distinct routes. Solutions are displayed using a georeferenced-based platform allowing for a spatial representation of data to be analyzed. The achieved results show that the total traveled distance can be reduced by approximately 14%. The main contribution of this work is to offer the company a DSS for route planning without any additional cost that may enable fast and efficient planning of the entire company’s distribution sector.

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Acknowledgements

This research is sponsored by national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, under the project UIDB/00285/ 2020. This work has been also supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Univ Coimbra, CEMMPRE, DEM, Coimbra, Portugal

    Telmo Pinto

  2. Centro ALGORITMI, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal

    Catarina Pena, Telmo Pinto & Maria Sameiro Carvalho

Authors
  1. Catarina Pena
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  2. Telmo Pinto
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  3. Maria Sameiro Carvalho
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Telmo Pinto .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

    Osvaldo Gervasi

  2. University of Basilicata, Potenza, Potenza, Italy

    Beniamino Murgante

  3. Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria

    Sanjay Misra

  4. University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

    Chiara Garau

  5. University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

    Ivan Blečić

  6. Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia

    David Taniar

  7. Kyushu Sangyo University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Bernady O. Apduhan

  8. University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

    Ana Maria A. C. Rocha

  9. Polytechnic University of Bari, Bari, Italy

    Eufemia Tarantino

  10. Polytechnic University of Bari, Bari, Italy

    Carmelo Maria Torre

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Pena, C., Pinto, T., Carvalho, M.S. (2021). A Two-Stage Heuristic for a Real Multi-compartment and Multi-trip Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows. In: Gervasi, O., et al. Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2021. ICCSA 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12953. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86976-2_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86976-2_19

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-86975-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-86976-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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