An Exact Algorithm for Combining Vehicle Trips

We consider a vehicle scheduling problem arising in freight transport systems where a vehicle fleet of different classes, split among different depots, must be used to perform a set of trips over a time period horizon minimizing a given cost function. The set of trips must be partitioned in a number of disjoint sequences (called duties) and each duty must be assigned to a vehicle satisfying time window and vehicle-trip objection constraints. Moreover, a vehicle can perform only one duty and must return to the starting depot. This problem is an extension of a simpler problem known as Multiple Depot Vehicle Scheduling Problem (MD-VSP) that is NP hard.