The Development of A Web-Based System in Solving the Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing problem of Fixed-Route Trucking Carriers

This research addresses an empirical multi-depot vehicle routing case for a fixed-route trucking carrier. In this case, the characteristics of vehicle routing problems, including multi-depots, dispatching quantity, routes arrangement and time-window constraints, are considered in order to reduce the delivering cost. A hybrid heuristic algorithm is developed in order to solve this practical problem. The developed algorithm first employs the nearest-neighbor heuristic to search for feasible solutions based on the constraints of both the time-window and loading capacity in the routing problem. Because the qualities of the genetic algorithm improve the initial solutions, the developed algorithm is able to further enhance the final solutions so as to avoid local optimization and gain a better solution in the problem domain. A web-based vehicle routing system which is integrated with the developed hybrid algorithm is also developed to assist engineering in configuring the appropriate vehicle routing and dispatching operations. The result has shown that the developed hybrid genetic algorithm can achieve a better routing solution and reduce the delivering cost for the case company.