This paper describes a tabu search heuristic for a vehicle routing problem where the owner of a private fleet can either visit a customer with one of his vehicles or assign the customer to a common carrier. The owner's objective is to minimize the variable and fixed costs for operating his fleet...

Inventory-routing problems (IRP) combine inventory control and vehicle routing, effectively optimizing inventory and replenishment decisions over several periods at a centralized level. In this paper we provide an exact formulation which includes several well-known valid inequalities for some...

Railway planning is a complex activity which is usually decomposed into several stages, traditionally network design, line design, timetabling, rolling stock, and staffing. In this paper, we study the design and optimization of train timetables for a rail rapid transit (RRT) line adapted to a...

We introduce, model and solve to optimality a rich multi-product, multi-period and multi-compartment vehicle routing problem with a required compartment cleaning activity. This real-life application arises in the olive oil collection process in Tunisia, where regional collection offices dispose...

The distribution of products using compartmentalized vehicles involves many decisions such as the allocation of products to vehicle compartments, vehicle routing and inventory control. These decisions often span several periods, yielding a difficult optimization problem. In this paper we define...