Optimising parcel deliveries in London using dual-mode routing

Abstract Last-mile delivery operations are complex, and the conventional way of using a single mode of delivery (e.g. driving) is not necessarily an efficient strategy. This paper describes a two-level parcel distribution model that combines walking and driving for a single driver. The model aims to minimise the total travelling time by scheduling a vehicle’s routing and the driver’s walking sequence when making deliveries, taking decisions on parking locations into consideration. The model is a variant of the Clustered Travelling Salesman Problem with Time Windows, in which the sequence of visits within each cluster is required to form a closed tour. When applied to a case study of an actual vehicle round from a parcel carrier operating in London, savings of over 20% in the total operation time were returned over the current situation where 144 parcels were being delivered to 57 delivery locations.

[1]  Silan Zhang,et al.  On the System of Diophantine Equations x 2 − 6y 2 = −5 and x = az 2 − b , 2014, TheScientificWorldJournal.

[2]  Seyedmehdi Mirmohammadsadeghi,et al.  Memetic Heuristic Approach for Solving Truck and Trailer Routing Problems with Stochastic Demands and Time Windows , 2015 .

[3]  Gilbert Laporte,et al.  Generalized travelling salesman problem through n sets of nodes: the asymmetrical case , 1987, Discret. Appl. Math..

[4]  Jean-François Cordeau,et al.  Branch-and-price and adaptive large neighborhood search for the truck and trailer routing problem with time windows , 2017, Comput. Oper. Res..

[5]  Andrei Horvat Marc,et al.  New mathematical models of the generalized vehicle routing problem and extensions , 2012 .

[6]  T. V. Woensel,et al.  From managing urban freight to smart city logistics networks , 2017 .

[7]  Shuo-Yan Chou,et al.  A note on the truck and trailer routing problem , 2010, Expert Syst. Appl..

[8]  Alain Hertz,et al.  A 5/3-approximation algorithm for the clustered traveling salesman tour and path problems , 1999, Oper. Res. Lett..

[9]  R. A. Zemlin,et al.  Integer Programming Formulation of Traveling Salesman Problems , 1960, JACM.

[10]  Matteo Fischetti,et al.  A Branch-and-Cut Algorithm for the Symmetric Generalized Traveling Salesman Problem , 1997, Oper. Res..

[11]  Gilbert Laporte,et al.  An incremental tabu search heuristic for the generalized vehicle routing problem with time windows , 2012, J. Oper. Res. Soc..

[12]  Paolo Toth,et al.  Vehicle Routing , 2014, Vehicle Routing.

[13]  Ton Volgenant,et al.  The symmetric clustered traveling salesman problem , 1985 .

[14]  D. Dumitrescu,et al.  Solving the Generalized Vehicle Routing Problem with an ACS‐based Algorithm , 2009 .

[15]  Tolga Bektas,et al.  Formulations and Branch-and-Cut Algorithms for the Generalized Vehicle Routing Problem , 2011, Transp. Sci..

[16]  Bruce L. Golden,et al.  The Consistent Vehicle Routing Problem , 2009, Manuf. Serv. Oper. Manag..

[17]  Antje Krause,et al.  Traveling Salesman Problem with Clustering , 2010 .

[18]  C. Ding,et al.  Two-level genetic algorithm for clustered traveling salesman problem with application in large-scale TSPs , 2007 .

[19]  Gilbert Laporte,et al.  Some applications of the generalized vehicle routing problem , 2008, J. Oper. Res. Soc..

[20]  Chung-Cheng Lu,et al.  A simulated annealing heuristic for the truck and trailer routing problem with time windows , 2011, Expert Syst. Appl..

[21]  Thibaut Vidal,et al.  Hybrid metaheuristics for the Clustered Vehicle Routing Problem , 2014, Comput. Oper. Res..

[22]  P. Cimiano,et al.  Market Overview , 2012, ADHESION ADHESIVES&SEALANTS.

[23]  Maja Piecyk,et al.  Enabling a Freight Traffic Controller for Collaborative Multidrop Urban Logistics , 2017 .

[24]  Maja Piecyk,et al.  Understanding the impact of e-commerce on last-mile light goods vehicle activity in urban areas: The case of London , 2017, Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment.

[25]  Maria Grazia Speranza,et al.  A survey on two-echelon routing problems , 2015, Comput. Oper. Res..

[26]  Stephan Scheuerer,et al.  A tabu search heuristic for the truck and trailer routing problem , 2006, Comput. Oper. Res..

[27]  Matteo Fischetti,et al.  The symmetric generalized traveling salesman polytope , 1995, Networks.

[28]  Maciek Nowak,et al.  Workforce Management in Periodic Delivery Operations , 2013, Transp. Sci..

[29]  James C. Bean,et al.  A Lagrangian Based Approach for the Asymmetric Generalized Traveling Salesman Problem , 1991, Oper. Res..

[30]  Gianpaolo Ghiani,et al.  An efficient transformation of the generalized vehicle routing problem , 2000, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[31]  Gilbert Laporte,et al.  Some Applications of the Generalized Travelling Salesman Problem , 1996 .

[32]  Zakir Hussain Ahmed,et al.  The Ordered Clustered Travelling Salesman Problem: A Hybrid Genetic Algorithm , 2014, TheScientificWorldJournal.