Trip packing in petrol stations replenishment

• Published in: Omega (Oxford) Vol. 39; no. 1; pp. 86 - 98
• Main Authors: Boctor, Fayez F., Renaud, Jacques, Cornillier, Fabien
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 2011; Elsevier; Pergamon Press Inc
• Series: Omega
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Benchmarks; Exact sciences and technology; Flows in networks. Combinatorial problems; Heuristic; Heuristics; Mixed integer models; Motor vehicle fleets; Operational research and scientific management; Operational research. Management science; Packing problem; Studies; Trip packing; Vehicle scheduling; Vehicle scheduling Trip packing Mixed integer models Heuristics; Mixed integer models; Trip packing; Vehicle scheduling; Heuristics; Fleet; Refeeding; Bin packing problem; Mixed integer programming; Scheduling; Neighborhood search; Lorry; Replenishment; Mixed model; Heuristic method; Storage tank; Execution time
• ISSN: 0305-0483; 1873-5274
• DOI: 10.1016/j.omega.2010.03.003

This paper considers a generalized version of the trip packing problem that we encountered as a sub-problem of the petrol stations replenishment problem. In this version we have to assign a number of trips to a fleet composed of a limited number of non-identical tank-trucks. Each trip has a specific duration, working time of vehicles is limited and the net revenue of each trip depends on the truck used. The paper provides a mathematical formulation of the problem and proposes some construction, improvement and neighbourhood search solution heuristics. A set of benchmark problem instances is created in a way that reflects real-life situations and used to analyse the performance of the proposed heuristics. A real-life case is also used to further assess the proposed heuristics.