Concentration and Specialisation in a Full Truck Vehicle Routing Heuristic Algorithm

Abstract

Pre- and end-haulage of intermodal container terminals involves the pickup or delivery of containers at customer locations. The drayage of containers in the service area of an intermodal terminal has been modelled as a full truckload pickup and delivery problem with time windows (FTPDPTW). The research investigates two concepts, borrowed from geographical economics, in the context of the FTPDPTW: concentration and specialisation. The concepts are translated into characteristics of time windows: more concentrated in the morning or in the afternoon; more longer time windows than shorter ones in either morning or afternoon. Experiments are run for a number of instances to investigate the effect of both concepts. It is shown that concentration leads to a higher number of routes and a higher final cost.