IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ortrsc/v52y2018i2p277-299.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Special Vehicle Routing Problem Arising in the Optimization of Waste Disposal: A Real Case

Author

Listed:
  • Roberto Aringhieri

    (Dipartimento di Informatica, Università degli Studi di Torino, 10124 Torino, Italy)

  • Maurizio Bruglieri

    (Dipartimento di Design, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy)

  • Federico Malucelli

    (Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy)

  • Maddalena Nonato

    (Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, 44122 Ferrara, Italy)

Abstract

We address a particular pickup and delivery vehicle routing problem arising in the collection and disposal of bulky recyclable waste. Containers of different types, used to collect different waste materials, once full, must be picked up to be emptied at suitable disposal plants and replaced by empty containers alike. All requests must be served, and routes are subject to a maximum duration constraint. Minimizing the number of vehicles is the main objective, while minimizing the total route duration is a secondary objective. The problem belongs to the class of rollon–rolloff vehicle routing problems (RR-VRPs), though some characteristics of the case study, such as the free circulation of containers and the limited availability of spare containers, allow us to exploit them in the solution approach. We formalize the problem as a special vehicle routing problem on a bipartite graph, we analyze its structure, and we compare it to similar problems emphasizing the impact of limited spare containers. Moreover, we propose a neighborhood-based metaheuristic that alternatively switches from one objective to the other along the search path and periodically destroys and rebuilds parts of the solution. The main algorithm components are experimentally evaluated on real and realistic instances, the largest of which fail to be solved by a mixed-integer linear programming solver. We are increasingly competitive with the solver as the instance size increases, especially regarding fleet size. In addition, the algorithm is applied to the benchmark instances for the RR-VRP.

Suggested Citation

  • Roberto Aringhieri & Maurizio Bruglieri & Federico Malucelli & Maddalena Nonato, 2018. "A Special Vehicle Routing Problem Arising in the Optimization of Waste Disposal: A Real Case," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(2), pages 277-299, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ortrsc:v:52:y:2018:i:2:p:277-299
    DOI: 10.1287/trsc.2016.0731
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2016.0731
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/trsc.2016.0731?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jula, Hossein & Dessouky, Maged & Ioannou, Petros & Chassiakos, Anastasios, 2005. "Container movement by trucks in metropolitan networks: modeling and optimization," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 235-259, May.
    2. Michel Gendreau & Alain Hertz & Gilbert Laporte, 1994. "A Tabu Search Heuristic for the Vehicle Routing Problem," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(10), pages 1276-1290, October.
    3. Imai, Akio & Nishimura, Etsuko & Current, John, 2007. "A Lagrangian relaxation-based heuristic for the vehicle routing with full container load," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 176(1), pages 87-105, January.
    4. Vigo, Daniele, 1996. "A heuristic algorithm for the asymmetric capacitated vehicle routing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 108-126, February.
    5. Chung-Lun Li & David Simchi-Levi & Martin Desrochers, 1992. "On the Distance Constrained Vehicle Routing Problem," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 40(4), pages 790-799, August.
    6. Elbek, Maria & Wøhlk, Sanne, 2016. "A variable neighborhood search for the multi-period collection of recyclable materials," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 249(2), pages 540-550.
    7. Lawrence Bodin & Aristide Mingozzi & Roberto Baldacci & Michael Ball, 2000. "The Rollon–Rolloff Vehicle Routing Problem," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(3), pages 271-288, August.
    8. C Archetti & M G Speranza, 2004. "Vehicle routing in the 1-skip collection problem," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 55(7), pages 717-727, July.
    9. Wy, Juyoung & Kim, Byung-In & Kim, Seongbae, 2013. "The rollon–rolloff waste collection vehicle routing problem with time windows," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 224(3), pages 466-476.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Haoqing Wang & Wen Yi & Yannick Liu, 2022. "Optimal Route Design for Construction Waste Transportation Systems: Mathematical Models and Solution Algorithms," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(22), pages 1-13, November.
    2. Aringhieri, Roberto & Duma, Davide & Landa, Paolo & Mancini, Simona, 2022. "Combining workload balance and patient priority maximisation in operating room planning through hierarchical multi-objective optimisation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 298(2), pages 627-643.

    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. Escudero-Santana, Alejandro & Muñuzuri, Jesús & Cortés, Pablo & Onieva, Luis, 2021. "The one container drayage problem with soft time windows," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    2. Xue, Zhaojie & Zhang, Canrong & Lin, Wei-Hua & Miao, Lixin & Yang, Peng, 2014. "A tabu search heuristic for the local container drayage problem under a new operation mode," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 136-150.
    3. Jennifer A. Pazour & Lucas C. Neubert, 2013. "Routing and Scheduling of Cross-Town Drayage Operations at J.B. Hunt Transport," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 43(2), pages 117-129, April.
    4. Zhang, Ruiyou & Yun, Won Young & Moon, Il Kyeong, 2011. "Modeling and optimization of a container drayage problem with resource constraints," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(1), pages 351-359, September.
    5. Song, Yujian & Zhang, Jiantong & Liang, Zhe & Ye, Chunming, 2017. "An exact algorithm for the container drayage problem under a separation mode," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 231-254.
    6. Benantar, A. & Abourraja, M.N. & Boukachour, J. & Boudebous, D. & Duvallet, C., 2020. "On the integration of container availability constraints into daily drayage operations arising in France: Modelling and optimization," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    7. Abdelkader Sbihi & Richard Eglese, 2010. "Combinatorial optimization and Green Logistics," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 175(1), pages 159-175, March.
    8. Neves-Moreira, F. & Amorim, P. & Guimarães, L. & Almada-Lobo, B., 2016. "A long-haul freight transportation problem: Synchronizing resources to deliver requests passing through multiple transshipment locations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 248(2), pages 487-506.
    9. Shiri, Samaneh & Huynh, Nathan, 2016. "Optimization of drayage operations with time-window constraints," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 7-20.
    10. 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.
    11. Zhang, Ruiyou & Lu, Jye-Chyi & Wang, Dingwei, 2014. "Container drayage problem with flexible orders and its near real-time solution strategies," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 235-251.
    12. Yujian Song & Yuting Zhang & Wanli Wang & Ming Xue, 2023. "A Branch and Price Algorithm for the Drop-and-Pickup Container Drayage Problem with Empty Container Constraints," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-28, March.
    13. Cui, Haipeng & Chen, Shukai & Chen, Rui & Meng, Qiang, 2022. "A two-stage hybrid heuristic solution for the container drayage problem with trailer reposition," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 299(2), pages 468-482.
    14. Paolo Toth & Daniele Vigo, 2003. "The Granular Tabu Search and Its Application to the Vehicle-Routing Problem," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 15(4), pages 333-346, November.
    15. Lai, Michela & Crainic, Teodor Gabriel & Di Francesco, Massimo & Zuddas, Paola, 2013. "An heuristic search for the routing of heterogeneous trucks with single and double container loads," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 108-118.
    16. Funke, Julia & Kopfer, Herbert, 2016. "A model for a multi-size inland container transportation problem," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 70-85.
    17. Xue, Zhaojie & Lin, Hui & You, Jintao, 2021. "Local container drayage problem with truck platooning mode," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    18. Dayarian, Iman & Crainic, Teodor Gabriel & Gendreau, Michel & Rei, Walter, 2016. "An adaptive large-neighborhood search heuristic for a multi-period vehicle routing problem," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 95-123.
    19. Liu, Ran & Jiang, Zhibin, 2012. "The close–open mixed vehicle routing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 220(2), pages 349-360.
    20. Li, Hongqi & Chang, Xinyu & Zhao, Wencong & Lu, Yingrong, 2017. "The vehicle flow formulation and savings-based algorithm for the rollon-rolloff vehicle routing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 257(3), pages 859-869.

    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:inm:ortrsc:v:52:y:2018:i:2:p:277-299. 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: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    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.