An Algorithm for the Vehicle-dispatching Problem

The vehicle-scheduling problem involves the design of several vehicle tours to meet a given set of requirements for customers with known locations, subject to a capacity constraint for the vehicles and a distance (or time) constraint for vehicle tours. Three methods of solution are considered in this paper:

1. a
   A branch-and-bound approach.
    
2. b
   The "savings" approach.
    
3. c
   The 3-optimal tour method.
    

The excessive computation time and computer storage required for the first method renders it impracticable for large problems. Ten problems are examined and the results suggest that method C is superior to the other two methods.