The two-echelon time-constrained vehicle routing problem in linehaul-delivery systems

Hongqi Li, Lu Zhang, Tan Lv and Xinyu Chang

Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 2016, vol. 94, issue C, 169-188

Abstract: Most of the studies address issues relating to the delivery from satellites to customers, which is throughout the end part of the linehaul-delivery system. Differing from the long-term strategic problems including the two-echelon vehicle routing problem (2E-VRP), the two-echelon location routing problem (2E-LRP) and the truck and trailer routing problem (TTRP) which make location decisions in depots or satellites, the paper introduces a short-term tactical problem named the two-echelon time-constrained vehicle routing problem in linehaul-delivery systems (2E-TVRP) that does not involve location decisions. The linehaul level and the delivery level are linked through city distribution centers (CDCs) located on the outskirts of cities. The 2E-TVRP has inter-CDC linehaul on the first level and urban delivery from CDCs to satellites on the second level. Vehicle routes on different levels are interacted by time constraints. A mixed integer nonlinear programming model for the 2E-TVRP is put forward, and a mixed integer linear programming model is used as the benchmark model. The Clarke and Wright savings heuristic algorithm (CW) improved by a local search phase is adopted. The 2E-TVRP formulations and the heuristic algorithm are tested by using 140 randomly-generated instances with up to 10 CDCs and 500 satellites. The computational results indicate that the heuristic can effectively solve various instances of the 2E-TVRP.

Keywords: Routing; Two-echelon; Linehaul-delivery system; Time-constrained; Mixed integer programming model; Heuristic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.trb.2016.09.012

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