A hybrid approach based on genetic algorithms for solving the Clustered Vehicle Routing Problem

In this paper, we describe a hybrid approach based on the use of genetic algorithms for solving the Clustered Vehicle Routing Problem, denoted by CluVRP. The problem studied in this work is a generalization of the classical Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) and is closely related to the Generalized Vehicle Routing Problem (GVRP). Along with the genetic algorithm, we consider a local-global approach to the problem that is reducing considerably the size of the solutions space. The obtained computational results point out that our algorithm is an appropriate method to explore the search space of this complex problem and leads to good solutions in a reasonable amount of time.