TY - JOUR

T1 - Vehicle routing and scheduling with time-varying data: A case study

AU - Maden, W

AU - Eglese, R W

AU - Black, D

PY - 2010

Y1 - 2010

N2 - A heuristic algorithm is described for vehicle routing and scheduling problems to minimise the total travel time, where the time required for a vehicle to travel along any road in the network varies according to the time of travel. The variation is caused by congestion that is typically greatest during morning and evening rush hours. The algorithm is used to schedule a fleet of delivery vehicles operating in the South West of the United Kingdom for a sample of days. The results demonstrate how conventional methods that do not take time-varying speeds into account when planning, except for an overall contingency allowance, may still lead to some routes taking too long. The results are analysed to show that in the case study using the proposed approach can lead to savings in CO2 emissions of about 7%.

AB - A heuristic algorithm is described for vehicle routing and scheduling problems to minimise the total travel time, where the time required for a vehicle to travel along any road in the network varies according to the time of travel. The variation is caused by congestion that is typically greatest during morning and evening rush hours. The algorithm is used to schedule a fleet of delivery vehicles operating in the South West of the United Kingdom for a sample of days. The results demonstrate how conventional methods that do not take time-varying speeds into account when planning, except for an overall contingency allowance, may still lead to some routes taking too long. The results are analysed to show that in the case study using the proposed approach can lead to savings in CO2 emissions of about 7%.

U2 - 10.1057/jors.2009.116

DO - 10.1057/jors.2009.116

M3 - Journal article

VL - 61

SP - 515

EP - 522

JO - Journal of the Operational Research Society

JF - Journal of the Operational Research Society

SN - 1476-9360

IS - 3

ER -