The multicommodity traveling salesman problem with priority prizes: a mathematical model and metaheuristics

The classic Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) only considers the costs involved in the routes and does not differentiate products or customers. Logistic companies face conflict between operational costs, customers with different categories of products, and customer satisfaction, which is directly related to delivery time. This paper presents a new mathematical model for a TSP with variable costs and priority prizes, taking into account the customer’s product and preference values. This problem is denoted as the Multicommodity Traveling Salesman Problem with Priority Prizes (MTSPPP). Two versions of the Biased Random-Key Genetic Algorithm (BRKGA) are proposed to solve medium and large instances of the MTSPPP. Computational tests were performed, using modified instances based on classical TSP instances. The proposed methods have proved to be efficient in solving the MTSPPP.