A tabu search approach for delivering pet food and flour in Switzerland

This paper considers a real-life vehicle routeing problem that occurs in a major Swiss company producing pet food and flour. In contrast with usual hypothetical problems, a large variety of restrictions has to be considered. The main constraints are relative to the accessibility and the time windows at customers, the carrying capacities of vehicles, the total duration of routes and the drivers’ breaks. To find good solutions to this problem, two heuristic methods are proposed: a fast straightforward insertion procedure and a method based on tabu search techniques. Next, the produced solutions are compared with the routes actually covered by the company. Outcomes indicate that the total distance travelled can be reduced significantly when such methods are used.