Transportation Multi depot vehicle routing problem with optional transshipment demands

Abstract

Abstract One of the important issues of transportation and delivery of goods is vehicle routing. These days, transportation issues are faced by many challenges, such as electric cars, a variety of products and services. This paper aims to reduce travel distance. To do this a mixed integer linear programming model is developed. It utilizes the vehicle routing problem with an optional transshipment model for single-product problems with one and two depots in small and non-small dimensions. In addition, parameters of customer demand are studied as stochastic with normal distribution. The situation of real-world condition has been obtained in the paper and a case study in Iran is given. Also, sensitivity analysis is made on some parameters. Numerical results indicate that the proposed model is relatively effective. Ultimately, some management insights are provided.