A Branch and Bound Algorithm to Minimize the Total Load Traveled for Single Vehicle Routing with Pickup and Delivery

Abstract

This study considers the problem of determining a single vehicle route that visits all customers while satisfying the pickup or delivery requirement of each customer. Unlike the traditional distance based ones, we consider the objective of minimizing the total load traveled, which is directly related with minimizing fuel consumption and hence contributes to reducing the amount of carbon emission. To represent the problem mathematically, a mixed integer programming model is developed. Then, a branch-and-bound algorithm is suggested that can give optimal solutions. To show the performance of the optimal algorithm, computational experiments were done on various test instances and the results are reported.