A two-stage optimization model-based heuristic for solving the vehicle routing problem for home delivery logistics service providers

抄録

This study solves a generalization of the classical vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW) for home delivery logistics service providers (HDLSPs) that service both general customers and enterprise customers. In addition to the typical constraints on the VRPTW, three practical considerations for HDLSPs, namely service capacity of sales drivers (SDs), delivery time preference of customers, and fairness of SDs’ performance bonus, are explicitly addressed in this problem. A two-stage optimization model-based algorithm is developed to tackle the problem. This approach adopts the “cluster-first-route-second” concept. To examine the performance of the proposed algorithm, several test instances are generated based on the historical data provided by a large HDLSP in Taiwan. The test instances are solved using Gurobi Optimizer. The results show that the proposed approach can effectively solve the problem. The proposed approach facilitates the HDLSP to effectively plan vehicle routes to service their customers.