Set-covering-based approximate algorithm using enhanced savings for solving vehicle routing problem

Abstract

Transportation is widely present in human activities and supports many economic activities. Using phones, reading mails, traveling, and flying involve the routing of messages, people, and goods. One of the present aims of research is to fill the gap between academic research and practical applications. Our aim is to present a simple and flexible heuristic for solving the capacitated vehicle routing problem and heterogeneous fleet vehicle routing problems, and discuss its advantages compared to other well-known heuristics. The flexibility of our approach comes from the simplicity of the solution procedure and is especially important when the algorithm is going to be applied to solving real-life problems.