A SCATTER SEARCH FOR MULTI-DEPOT VEHICLE ROUTING PROBLEM WITH WEIGHT-RELATED COST

The multi-depot vehicle routing problem (MDVRP) is a variant of the classical vehicle routing problem (VRP). Most research on MDVRP and its extensions often do not consider the effect of the freight's weight on the total cost. In this paper, the multi-depot vehicle routing problem with weight-related cost (MDVRPWRC) is introduced. MDVRPWRC considers the cost incurred by the weight of freight to determine the vehicle routine with the objective of minimizing the total cost. A scatter search (SS) for the MDVRPWRC is proposed. The sweep algorithm and the optimal splitting procedure are used to construct the initial trial solutions. An iterative descending algorithm and an arc choosing method are adopted in the SS to improve and combine the solutions, respectively. Computational experiments on a range of test datasets show that the MDVRPWRC can reduce the total cost more efficiently compared with the general MDVRP. Moreover, the proposed SS can solve the MDVRPWRC effectively.