A manual solution procedure for the school bus routing problem

In the school bus routing problem a fleet of buses, each with known capacity, must be scheduled to visit stops, collect pupils and transport them to a school. It is assumed that each bus begins its first trip at a unique location termed the 'driver's home'. The problem is to minimise the total cost (in terms of time, distance, or money) incurred in transporting all the pupils to the school. This paper presents a manual heuristic solution procedure for the problem. The method requires the use of a map of the area concerned. It is suitable for use by school planners who are not going to employ a computer (a).