The vehicle routing problem with private fleet and multiple common carriers: Solution with hybrid metaheuristic algorithm

Abstract This paper proposes a hybrid algorithm that combines a Tabu Search algorithm enhanced with a modified neighborhood structures to solve the Vehicle Routing Problem with Private fleet and common Carrier (VRPPC). We consider a variant of the well-known Vehicle Routing Problem in which a fixed internal fleet (Private fleet) is available at the warehouse in the presence of an external Transporter. In order to provide computer based decision support a numerical experiments were carried out on the standard instances taken from the literature which show that the proposed solution methodology based on ejections chains neighborhood structures provides competitive quality solutions compared to other heuristics proposed in the literature and it provides the best-known solutions to a well-known benchmark problem set.