A heuristic algorithm for the multi-depot periodic vehicle routing problem

This work addresses the periodic vehicle routing problem of single product supplied by multiple depots. A delivery scheduling and vehicle routing model is proposed for the multiple depots, a set of customers with periodicity of the demand, multi-vehicle, and vehicle capacity constraint problems. The purpose of this work is to develop a method which determines the delivery scheduling and routing policies of the vehicles in order to minimize the total number of routes over the planning horizon. Heuristic algorithms are proposed and simulation results are represented.