Fifty Years of Vehicle Routing

• Published in: Transportation science Vol. 43; no. 4; pp. 408 - 416
• Main Author: Laporte, Gilbert
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Linthicum, MD INFORMS 01.11.2009; Transportation Science & Logistic Society of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences; Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
• Subjects: Algorithms; Analysis; Applied sciences; Decomposition; Discrete mathematics; exact algorithms; Exact sciences and technology; Ground, air and sea transportation, marine construction; Heuristic; Heuristic programming; Heuristics; Hybrid vehicles; Insect colonies; Logistics; Mathematical methods; Mathematical programming; Meta-analysis; metaheuristics; Operations research; Programming; Road transportation and traffic; Routing; Studies; survey; Tabu search; Transport economics; Transportation; Transportation planning, management and economics; Traveling salesman problem; Truck routes; Trucks; vehicle routing problem; Vehicles; Vertices; United States; traveling salesman problem; Vehicle routing problem; Travelling salesman problem; metaheuristics; Algorithm; Road transportation; exact algorithms; heuristics; Formulation; Traffic management; survey; Heuristic approach; Dynamic programming
• ISSN: 0041-1655; 1526-5447
• DOI: 10.1287/trsc.1090.0301

The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) was introduced 50 years ago by Dantzig and Ramser under the title "The Truck Dispatching Problem." The study of the VRP has given rise to major developments in the fields of exact algorithms and heuristics. In particular, highly sophisticated exact mathematical programming decomposition algorithms and powerful metaheuristics for the VRP have been put forward in recent years. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief account of this development.