Minimising vehicle distribution duration considering service priority. (2nd August 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Alexiou, Dimitra
• Is Part Of: International journal of mathematics in operational research. Volume 15:Number 1(2019)
• Page Start: 127
• Page End: 136
• Publication Date: 2019-08-02
• Subjects: distribution -- graph theory -- vehicle routing -- priority service -- network; Operations research -- Mathematical models -- Periodicals; Operations research -- Mathematics -- Periodicals; Decision making -- Mathematical models -- Periodicals; 658.4033
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1757-5850

Abstract

A vehicle routing problem (VRP) is dealt with, where a fleet of vehicles serve (distribution/pickup) a given subset of demand locations in an urban network. A service time priority degree is given to a subset of demand locations. The aim of this paper is to find the least possible overall service time for vehicles to all the demand locations and particularly those that have a high degree of priority. The problem is dealt with in the context of graph theory and a corresponding method is proposed. The paper incorporates a numerical example of the proposed method.