A Heuristic Algorithm for the Auto-Carrier Transportation Problem

R. Tadei, G. Perboli and F. Della Croce
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R. Tadei: D.A.I., Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Torino, Italy
G. Perboli: D.A.I., Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Torino, Italy
F. Della Croce: D.A.I., Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Torino, Italy

Transportation Science, 2002, vol. 36, issue 1, 55-62

Abstract: The delivery of vehicles to dealers is one of the major tasks in the vehicle production industry. It has relied on transportation companies that use special tractor-trailer trucks called auto-carriers. One of the main problems these companies have to solve is the optimal loading and routing of the auto-carriers, referred to as the Auto-Carrier Transportation (ACT) problem. In this paper we provide an integer programming formulation of the ACT problem and show that the problem is NP -hard in the strong sense. A three-step heuristic procedure stronglybased on the IP formulation, which considers loading, vehicle selection, and routing aspects, is proposed. An application to a real case studyof a vehicle transportation company located in northern Italyis given, with an average deviation lower than 3% from an upper bound on the optimal solution value.

Date: 2002
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