Column Generation for a Multitrip Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows, Driver Work Hours, and Heterogeneous Fleet

This study addresses a vehicle routing problem with time windows, accessibility restrictions on customers, and a fleet that is heterogeneous with regard to capacity and average speed. A vehicle can perform multiple routes per day, all starting and ending at a single depot, and it is assigned to a single driver whose total work hours are limited. A column generation algorithm is proposed. The column generation pricing subproblem requires a specific elementary shortest path problem with resource constraints algorithm to address the possibility for each vehicle performing multiple routes per day and to address the need to set the workday’s start time within the planning horizon. A constructive heuristic and a metaheuristic based on tabu search are also developed to find good solutions.