Abstract:

The article presents the Rich Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) that reflects a real problem for one of the food retailers network in Poland. To solve this problem a very fast algorithm was proposed basing on the savings heuristic and graph approach. The proposed algorithm was tested using four real world cases and occurred to be very efficient, giving better results than a simple SA algorithm. However, its main advantage is that it gives the solution immediately even for the largest problem with 270 stores and 43 vehicles. Thus it can be used, e.g., for a quick replanning in dynamic VRP in which the routing plan should be adjusted to the current situation on the road, or at delivery points.