IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ejores/v326y2025i2p343-356.html

Integrating shift planning and pick-up and delivery problems under limited courier availability

Author

Listed:
  • Ozyavas, Pinar
  • Ursavas, Evrim
  • Buijs, Paul
  • Teunter, Ruud

Abstract

Delivery couriers increasingly demand working in a flexible arrangement. Flexible contracts can be cost-effective from the perspective of a delivery company, but may also cripple its ability to serve all customers in time as couriers are not always available. To alleviate the complexities caused by courier-related constraints, delivery companies usually operate with a work schedule consisting of multiple shifts—allowing couriers to choose the shifts they prefer working in. Inspired by this trend and a real-world case, we propose a variant of pick-up and delivery problem with time windows considering multiple shifts and courier availability. We present a mixed-integer linear programming model and a set partitioning model that maximize the total profit by deciding on the shift allocation and the couriers’ delivery routes, taking courier shift preferences and vehicle availability into account. The model is solved exactly using a branch-price-and-cut algorithm. We generate a set of practically relevant instances to conduct computational experiments. Our results highlight the benefits of bundling customer requests and the challenges posed by limited courier availability in terms of the number of requests served. Bundling mitigates the negative impact of limited courier availability, while having more couriers can serve as an alternative.

Suggested Citation

  • Ozyavas, Pinar & Ursavas, Evrim & Buijs, Paul & Teunter, Ruud, 2025. "Integrating shift planning and pick-up and delivery problems under limited courier availability," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 326(2), pages 343-356.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:326:y:2025:i:2:p:343-356
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2025.03.031
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221725002449
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ejor.2025.03.031?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dumas, Yvan & Desrosiers, Jacques & Soumis, Francois, 1991. "The pickup and delivery problem with time windows," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 7-22, September.
    2. Lafkihi, Mariam & Pan, Shenle & Ballot, Eric, 2019. "Freight transportation service procurement: A literature review and future research opportunities in omnichannel E-commerce," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 348-365.
    3. Orlis, Christos & Laganá, Demetrio & Dullaert, Wout & Vigo, Daniele, 2020. "Distribution with Quality of Service Considerations: The Capacitated Routing Problem with Profits and Service Level Requirements," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    4. Goeke, Dominik, 2019. "Granular tabu search for the pickup and delivery problem with time windows and electric vehicles," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 278(3), pages 821-836.
    5. Sun, Peng & Veelenturf, Lucas P. & Dabia, Said & Van Woensel, Tom, 2018. "The time-dependent capacitated profitable tour problem with time windows and precedence constraints," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 264(3), pages 1058-1073.
    6. Stefan Ropke & David Pisinger, 2006. "An Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search Heuristic for the Pickup and Delivery Problem with Time Windows," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(4), pages 455-472, November.
    7. Li, Chongshou & Gong, Lijun & Luo, Zhixing & Lim, Andrew, 2019. "A branch-and-price-and-cut algorithm for a pickup and delivery problem in retailing," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 71-91.
    8. Said Dabia & Stefan Ropke & Tom van Woensel, 2019. "Cover Inequalities for a Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows and Shifts," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(5), pages 1354-1371, September.
    9. Cavaliere, Francesco & Accorsi, Luca & Laganà, Demetrio & Musmanno, Roberto & Vigo, Daniele, 2024. "An efficient heuristic for very large-scale vehicle routing problems with simultaneous pickup and delivery," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    10. Stefan Ropke & Jean-François Cordeau, 2009. "Branch and Cut and Price for the Pickup and Delivery Problem with Time Windows," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(3), pages 267-286, August.
    11. Wu, Haotian & Savelsbergh, Martin & Huang, Yixiao, 2022. "Planning the city operations of a parcel express company," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    12. Qiu, Xiaoqiu & Feuerriegel, Stefan & Neumann, Dirk, 2017. "Making the most of fleets: A profit-maximizing multi-vehicle pickup and delivery selection problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 259(1), pages 155-168.
    13. De Bruecker, Philippe & Beliën, Jeroen & De Boeck, Liesje & De Jaeger, Simon & Demeulemeester, Erik, 2018. "A model enhancement approach for optimizing the integrated shift scheduling and vehicle routing problem in waste collection," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 266(1), pages 278-290.
    14. Alnaggar, Aliaa & Gzara, Fatma & Bookbinder, James H., 2021. "Crowdsourced delivery: A review of platforms and academic literature," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    15. Li, Yuan & Chen, Haoxun & Prins, Christian, 2016. "Adaptive large neighborhood search for the pickup and delivery problem with time windows, profits, and reserved requests," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 252(1), pages 27-38.
    16. Roberto Baldacci & Enrico Bartolini & Aristide Mingozzi, 2011. "An Exact Algorithm for the Pickup and Delivery Problem with Time Windows," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 59(2), pages 414-426, April.
    17. Lu Zhen & Wenya Lv & Kai Wang & Chengle Ma & Ziheng Xu, 2020. "Consistent vehicle routing problem with simultaneous distribution and collection," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 71(5), pages 813-830, May.
    18. Xue, Ning & Bai, Ruibin & Qu, Rong & Aickelin, Uwe, 2021. "A hybrid pricing and cutting approach for the multi-shift full truckload vehicle routing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 292(2), pages 500-514.
    19. Bai, Ruibin & Xue, Ning & Chen, Jianjun & Roberts, Gethin Wyn, 2015. "A set-covering model for a bidirectional multi-shift full truckload vehicle routing problem," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 134-148.
    20. Gunawan, Aldy & Lau, Hoong Chuin & Vansteenwegen, Pieter, 2016. "Orienteering Problem: A survey of recent variants, solution approaches and applications," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 255(2), pages 315-332.
    21. Claudia Archetti & M. Grazia Speranza & Ángel Corberán & José M. Sanchis & Isaac Plana, 2014. "The Team Orienteering Arc Routing Problem," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(3), pages 442-457, August.
    22. Xu, Dongyang & Li, Kunpeng & Zou, Xuxia & Liu, Ling, 2017. "An unpaired pickup and delivery vehicle routing problem with multi-visit," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 218-247.
    23. Detti, Paolo & Papalini, Francesco & Lara, Garazi Zabalo Manrique de, 2017. "A multi-depot dial-a-ride problem with heterogeneous vehicles and compatibility constraints in healthcare," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 1-14.
    24. Sun, Peng & Veelenturf, Lucas P. & Hewitt, Mike & Van Woensel, Tom, 2020. "Adaptive large neighborhood search for the time-dependent profitable pickup and delivery problem with time windows," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    25. Mariam Lafkihi & Shenle Pan & Eric Ballot, 2019. "Freight transportation service procurement: A literature review and future research opportunities in omnichannel E-commerce," Post-Print hal-02086154, HAL.
    26. Margaretha Gansterer & Murat Küçüktepe & Richard F. Hartl, 2017. "The multi-vehicle profitable pickup and delivery problem," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 39(1), pages 303-319, January.
    27. Bongiovanni, Claudia & Kaspi, Mor & Geroliminis, Nikolas, 2019. "The electric autonomous dial-a-ride problem," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 436-456.
    28. C Archetti & D Feillet & A Hertz & M G Speranza, 2009. "The capacitated team orienteering and profitable tour problems," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 60(6), pages 831-842, June.
    29. Braekers, Kris & Caris, An & Janssens, Gerrit K., 2014. "Exact and meta-heuristic approach for a general heterogeneous dial-a-ride problem with multiple depots," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 166-186.
    30. Vincent F. Yu & Hadi Susanto & Yu-Hsuan Yeh & Shih-Wei Lin & Yu-Tsung Huang, 2022. "The Vehicle Routing Problem with Simultaneous Pickup and Delivery and Parcel Lockers," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-22, March.
    31. Sun, Wei & Yu, Yang & Wang, Junwei, 2019. "Heterogeneous vehicle pickup and delivery problems: Formulation and exact solution," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 181-202.
    32. Mads Jepsen & Bjørn Petersen & Simon Spoorendonk & David Pisinger, 2008. "Subset-Row Inequalities Applied to the Vehicle-Routing Problem with Time Windows," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(2), pages 497-511, April.
    33. Christos Orlis & Nicola Bianchessi & Roberto Roberti & Wout Dullaert, 2020. "The Team Orienteering Problem with Overlaps: An Application in Cash Logistics," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(2), pages 470-487, March.
    34. Dell'Amico, Mauro & Hadjicostantinou, Eleni & Iori, Manuel & Novellani, Stefano, 2014. "The bike sharing rebalancing problem: Mathematical formulations and benchmark instances," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 7-19.
    35. Masmoudi, Mohamed Amine & Hosny, Manar & Demir, Emrah & Genikomsakis, Konstantinos N. & Cheikhrouhou, Naoufel, 2018. "The dial-a-ride problem with electric vehicles and battery swapping stations," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 392-420.
    36. M. W. P. Savelsbergh & M. Sol, 1995. "The General Pickup and Delivery Problem," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(1), pages 17-29, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhang, Li & Liu, Zhongshan & Yu, Bin & Long, Jiancheng, 2024. "A ridesharing routing problem for airport riders with electric vehicles," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    2. Sun, Peng & Veelenturf, Lucas P. & Hewitt, Mike & Van Woensel, Tom, 2018. "The time-dependent pickup and delivery problem with time windows," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 1-24.
    3. Bohan Hu & Feng-Jang Hwang, 2026. "Supermarket-chain grocery delivery optimization through courier coordination," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 359(3), pages 2829-2868, April.
    4. Roelink, Daniël & Campuzano, Giovanni & Mes, Martijn & Lalla-Ruiz, Eduardo, 2025. "The selective multiple depot pickup and delivery problem with multiple time windows and paired demand," Operations Research Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 14(C).
    5. Liu, Mengyang & Luo, Zhixing & Lim, Andrew, 2015. "A branch-and-cut algorithm for a realistic dial-a-ride problem," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 267-288.
    6. Li, Chongshou & Gong, Lijun & Luo, Zhixing & Lim, Andrew, 2019. "A branch-and-price-and-cut algorithm for a pickup and delivery problem in retailing," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 71-91.
    7. Schaumann, Sarah K. & Bergmann, Felix M. & Wagner, Stephan M. & Winkenbach, Matthias, 2023. "Route efficiency implications of time windows and vehicle capacities in first- and last-mile logistics," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 311(1), pages 88-111.
    8. Yuan Qu & Jonathan F. Bard, 2015. "A Branch-and-Price-and-Cut Algorithm for Heterogeneous Pickup and Delivery Problems with Configurable Vehicle Capacity," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(2), pages 254-270, May.
    9. Qin, Hu & Moriakin, Anton & Xu, Gangyan & Li, Jiliu, 2024. "The generator distribution problem for base stations during emergency power outage: A branch-and-price-and-cut approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 318(3), pages 752-767.
    10. Du, Yuchen & Yang, Hai & Chow, Joseph Y.J. & Le, Tho V., 2025. "Two-stage stochastic fleet and battery sizing with routing optimization for sidewalk delivery robots," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    11. Albert H. Schrotenboer & Evrim Ursavas & Iris F. A. Vis, 2019. "A Branch-and-Price-and-Cut Algorithm for Resource-Constrained Pickup and Delivery Problems," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(4), pages 1001-1022, July.
    12. Su, Yue & Dupin, Nicolas & Parragh, Sophie N. & Puchinger, Jakob, 2024. "A Branch-and-Price algorithm for the electric autonomous Dial-A-Ride Problem," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    13. Luciano Costa & Claudio Contardo & Guy Desaulniers, 2019. "Exact Branch-Price-and-Cut Algorithms for Vehicle Routing," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(4), pages 946-985, July.
    14. Schulz, Arne & Pfeiffer, Christian, 2024. "Using fixed paths to improve branch-and-cut algorithms for precedence-constrained routing problems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 312(2), pages 456-472.
    15. Cherkesly, Marilène & Gschwind, Timo, 2022. "The pickup and delivery problem with time windows, multiple stacks, and handling operations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 301(2), pages 647-666.
    16. Ho, Sin C. & Szeto, W.Y. & Kuo, Yong-Hong & Leung, Janny M.Y. & Petering, Matthew & Tou, Terence W.H., 2018. "A survey of dial-a-ride problems: Literature review and recent developments," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 395-421.
    17. Aziez, Imadeddine & Côté, Jean-François & Coelho, Leandro C., 2022. "Fleet sizing and routing of healthcare automated guided vehicles," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    18. Sun, Peng & Veelenturf, Lucas P. & Hewitt, Mike & Van Woensel, Tom, 2020. "Adaptive large neighborhood search for the time-dependent profitable pickup and delivery problem with time windows," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    19. Asghari, Mohammad & Mirzapour Al-e-hashem, S. Mohammad J., 2020. "A green delivery-pickup problem for home hemodialysis machines; sharing economy in distributing scarce resources," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    20. Ouyang, Kechen & Wang, David Z.W., 2025. "Optimal operation strategies for freight transport with electric vehicles considering wireless charging lanes," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:326:y:2025:i:2:p:343-356. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.