Using biased randomization for solving the two dimensional loading vehicle routing problem with heterogeneous fleet
This paper discusses the two dimensional loading capacitated vehicle routing problem (2L CVRP) with heterogeneous fleet (2L HFVRP) The 2L CVRP can be found in many real life situations related to the transportation of voluminous items where two dimensional packing restrictions have to be considered, e.g. transportation of heavy machinery, forklifts, professional cleaning equipment, etc. Here, we also consider a heterogeneous fleet of vehicles, comprising units of different capacities, sizes and fixed/variable costs. Despite the fact that heterogeneous fleets are quite ubiquitous in real life scenarios, there is a lack of publications in the literature discussing the 2L HFVRP. In particular, to the best of our knowledge no previous work discusses the non oriented 2L HFVRP, in which items are allowed to be rotated during the truck loading process. After describing and motivating the problem, a literature review on related work is performed. Then, a multi start algorithm based on biased randomization of routing and packing heuristics is proposed. A set of computational experiments contribute to illustrate the scope of our approach, as well as to show its efficiency.
Ann. Oper. Res.