Vehicle Routing with Backhauls : Asymptotic Heuristic and Probabilistic Variation

• Published in: Journal of Japan Logistics Society Vol. 1992; no. 1; pp. 39 - 51
• Main Authors: Kubo, Mikio, Kasugai, Hiroshi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: JAPAN LOGISTICS SOCIETY 03.11.1992
• Subjects: asymptotic analysis; probabilistic vehicle routing problem; Vehicle routing problem with backhauls
• ISSN: 0919-3782; 1884-6858
• DOI: 10.11285/logisticssociety1992.1992.39

The vehicle routing problem with backhauls (VRPB) can be stated as follows : Find a minimum distance route for a vehicle that services the delivery and backhaul (pick-up) customers without violating the vehicle capacity constraint. In contrast to its practical importance very limited papers have been presented for this problem. The objective of this study is to shed a theoretical light to this problem. First we derive an asymptotic formula for the VRPB assuming that all nodes (customers) are distributed on the Euclidean plane using a simple heuristic based on partition of the region. Then we analyze a probabilistic variation of the VRPB and derive a formula that gives the expected travel distance of daily vehicle routes.