A two‐stage algorithm for the extended linehaul‐feeder vehicle routing problem with time windows

In this paper, an extended linehaul‐feeder vehicle routing problem with time windows (ELFVRPTW) is addressed. The objective is to minimise the total fixed cost, travel cost, manpower cost and waiting cost for all vehicle routes. In the ELFVRPTW, vehicles are divided into two types (large and small vehicles) according to size and capacity. Small vehicles deliver goods within time windows to the customers that are located on narrow roads. When the load of a small vehicle en route is empty or near‐empty, it may reload goods from a large vehicle residing at one virtual depot or directly from the physical depot. As compared with its earlier version, called the linehaul‐feeder vehicle routing problem (LFVRPTW), the ELFVRPTW is more realistic, because several large vehicles and capacity limitation of large vehicles are taken into consideration. To solve this difficult combinatorial problem, a two‐stage solution heuristics is developed. The test results show that the ELFVRPTW is advantageous over the LFVRPTW with respect to the average objective value and the average number of used vehicles.