Multi-depot multi-compartment vehicle routing problem, solved by a hybrid adaptive large neighborhood search

This paper presents a mathematical model for multi-depot multi-compartment vehicle routing problem. The objective function of the proposed problem includes the minimization of the number of vehicles and then minimization of the total traversed routes. In this type of problem, the cargo space of each vehicle has multiple compartments, and each compartment is dedicated to a single type of product. In the proposed model, split delivery for one given product is not allowed, therefore demand of a customer for a certain product must be fully delivered by a single vehicle; however, split delivery for a set of requested products is allowed, so different products can be delivered to a customer by different vehicles. Considering the NP-Hardness of the proposed problem, a hybrid algorithm composed of adaptive large neighborhood search and variable neighborhood search is developed to solve the large scale instances. Performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by comparing its results with the results of exact method, adaptive large neighborhood search algorithm and variable neighborhood search algorithm. The results demonstrate the good performance of the proposed hybrid algorithm. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.