A record-to-record travel algorithm for solving the heterogeneous fleet vehicle routing problem

In the heterogeneous fleet vehicle routing problem (HVRP), several different types of vehicles can be used to service the customers. The types of vehicles differ with respect to capacity, fixed cost, and variable cost. We assume that the number of vehicles of each type is fixed and equal to a constant. We must decide how to make the best use of the fixed fleet of heterogeneous vehicles. In this paper, we review methods for solving the HVRP, develop a variant of our record-to-record travel algorithm for the standard vehicle routing problem that takes a heterogeneous fleet into account, and report computational results on eight benchmark problems. Finally, we generate a new set of five test problems that have 200-360 customers and solve each new problem using our record-to-record travel algorithm. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.