Abstract
The vehicle fleet mix problem is a special case of the vehicle routing problem where customers are served by a heterogeneous fleet of vehicles with various capacities. An efficient heuristic for determining the composition of a vehicle fleet and travelling routes was developed using tabu search and by solving set partitioning problems. Two kinds of problems have appeared in the literature, concerning fixed cost and variable cost, and these were tested for evaluation. Initial solutions were found using the modified sweeping method. Whenever a new solution in an iteration of the tabu search was obtained, optimal vehicle allocation was performed for the set of routes, which are constructed from the current solution by making a giant tour. Experiments were performed for the benchmark problems that appeared in the literature and new best-known solutions were found.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Balinski ML and Quandt RE (1964). On an integer program for a delivery problem. Opns Res 12: 300–304.
Bolduc MC, Renaud J and Montreuil B (2006). Synchronized routing of seasonal products through a production/distribution network. Central Eur J Opl Res 14: 209–228.
Brandão J and Mercer A (1997). A tabu search algorithm for the multi-trip vehicle routing and scheduling problem. Eur J Opl Res 100: 180–191.
Calvete HI, Galé C, Oliveros MJ and Sánchez-Valverde B (2005). A goal programming approach to vehicle routing problems with soft time windows. Eur J Opl Res 177: 1720–1733.
Choi E and Tcha DW (2005). A column generation approach to the heterogeneous fleet vehicle routing problem. Comput Opns Res 34: 2080–2095.
Dantzig G and Ramser J (1959). The truck dispatching problem. Mngt Sci 6: 80–91.
Dondo R and Cerdá J (2006). A cluster-based optimization approach for the multi-depot heterogeneous fleet vehicle routing problem with time windows. Eur J Opl Res 176: 1478–1507.
Dullaert W, Janssens GK, Sorensen K and Vernimmen B (2002). New heuristics for the fleet size and mix vehicle routing problem with time windows. J Opl Res Soc 53: 1232–1238.
Gendreau M, Laporte G, Musaraganyi C and Taillard ED (1999). A tabu search heuristic for the heterogeneous fleet vehicle routing problem. Comput Opns Res 26: 1153–1173.
Gheysens F, Golden B and Assad A (1984). A comparison of techniques for solving the fleet size and mix vehicle routing problem. Opns Res Spectrum 6: 207–216.
Gheysens FG, Golden B and Assad A (1986). A new heuristic for determining fleet size and composition. Math Programm Studies 26: 233–236.
Gillett B and Miller L (1974). A heuristic algorithm for the vehicle dispatch problem. Opns Res 22: 340–349.
Golden B, Assad A, Levy L and Gheysens FG (1984). The fleet size and mix vehicle routing problem. Comput Opns Res 11: 49–66.
Grabowski J and Pempera J (2005). Some local search algorithms for no-wait flow-shop problem with makespan criterion. Comput Opns Res 32: 2197–2212.
Irnich S (2000). A multi-depot pickup and delivery problem with a single hub and heterogeneous vehicles. Eur J Opl Res 122: 310–328.
Lima CMRR, Goldbarg MC and Goldbarg EFG (2004). A memetic algorithm for the heterogeneous fleet vehicle routing problem. Electronic Notes Discrete Math 18: 171–176.
Liu FH and Shen SY (1999). The fleet size and mix vehicle routing problem with time windows. J Opl Res Soc 50: 721–732.
Prins C (2002). Efficient heuristics for the heterogeneous fleet multitrip VRP with application to a large-scale real case. J Math Modell Algorithms 1: 135–150.
Privé J, Renaud J, Boctor F and Laporte G (2006). Solving a vehicle routing problem arising in soft drink distribution. J Opl Res Soc 57: 1045–1052.
Taillard ED (1999). A heuristic column generation method for the heterogeneous fleet VRP. RAIRO-Opns Res 33: 1–14.
Tarantilis CD and Kiranoudis CT (2001). A meta-heuristic algorithm for the efficient distribution of perishable foods. J Food Eng 50: 1–9.
Tarantilis CD and Kiranoudis CT (2005). A flexible adaptive memory-based algorithm for real-life transportation operations: two case studies from dairy and construction sector. Eur J Opl Res 179: 806–822.
Tavakkoli-Moghaddam R, Safaei N and Gholipour Y (2006). A hybrid simulated annealing for capacitated vehicle routing problems with the independent route length. Appl Math Comput 176: 445–454.
Wassan NA and Osman IH (2002). Tabu search variants for the mix fleet vehicle routing problem. J Opl Res Soc 53: 768–782.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lee, Y., Kim, J., Kang, K. et al. A heuristic for vehicle fleet mix problem using tabu search and set partitioning. J Oper Res Soc 59, 833–841 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602421
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602421