An interactive computerized algorithm for multicriteria vehicle routing problems

Abstract The Multicriteria vehicle routing problem (VRP) is a VRP which allows several relevant objectives to be achieved. The use of an interactive computer program combined with a powerful vehicle routing algorithm can be a valuable tool in the hands of a scheduler who can apply his own skills and knowledge to full effect in conjunction with the speed and flexibility of the computer program. An interactive computerized algorithm is developed that utilizes a heuristic algorithm to determine the most favorable vehicle routes for multicriteria VRPs. This algorithm takes into account that the problem being addressed may in fact be complicated by several conflicting objectives. Although many different objectives could be considered, the specific model presented here consists of the following three relevant objectives: minimization of the travel distance of vehicles, minimization of total deterioration of goods during transportation, and maximization of the total fulfillment of emergent services and conditional dependencies of stations. The interactive algorithm successfully performs the trade-off between the achievement levels of the objectives through changes of the decision maker's goal priority structure, the target values of the objectives, and the subsets formation of stations.