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Tabu search techniques for the heterogeneous vehicle routing problem with time windows and carrier-dependent costs

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Abstract

In this work we formalize a new complex variant of the classical vehicle routing problem arising from a real-world application. Our formulation includes a heterogeneous fleet, a multi-day planning horizon, a complex carrier-dependent cost for vehicles, and the possibility of leaving orders unscheduled.

For tackling this problem we propose a metaheuristic approach based on Tabu Search and on a combination of neighborhood relations. We perform an experimental analysis to tune and compare different combinations, highlighting the most important features of the algorithm.

The outcome is that a significant improvement is obtained by a complex combination of neighborhood relations.

In addition, we compare our solver with previous work on public benchmarks of a similar version of the problem, namely the Vehicle Routing Problem with Private fleet and Common carrier. The conclusion is that our results are competitive with the best ones in literature.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. DIEGM, University of Udine, via delle Scienze 208, 33100, Udine, Italy

    Sara Ceschia, Luca Di Gaspero & Andrea Schaerf

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  1. Sara Ceschia
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  2. Luca Di Gaspero
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  3. Andrea Schaerf
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Correspondence to Sara Ceschia.

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Ceschia, S., Di Gaspero, L. & Schaerf, A. Tabu search techniques for the heterogeneous vehicle routing problem with time windows and carrier-dependent costs. J Sched 14, 601–615 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10951-010-0213-x

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