Description of a new algorithm for the vehicle routing and scheduling problem and comparative analysis of its performance

This article describes a novel algorithm for the vehicle routing and scheduling problem, which is composed of two phases and based on the tabu search theory. The main constraints taken into account by the algorithm are the following: the vehicles depart from the depot and return to it after service; each vehicle makes only one trip a day and there is a maximum limit for its travelling time; the customers require to be served during a given time window. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated through computational testing with benchmark problems from the literature and comparing the results with those obtained by the best known algorithms.