Combined Routeing and Scheduling for the Transportation of Containerized Cargo

A tractor-trailer problem, with full load, from the class of combined routeing and scheduling problems is described. Distinctive features of the problem are: movements must be carried out within certain time windows; subsets of movements are linked in the sense that they must be executed in a certain order; and different priorities are attached to different movements. A new bidirectional sequential constructive heuristic is developed for the solution of this problem. The method constructs routes and schedules for the available tractor fleet. The algorithm attempts to minimize the total time for all the movements by minimizing the time taken up by unproductive movements (so-called deadhead) and waiting time between movements. Some practical aspects of the implementation of the approach are discussed.