Modelling of a routing problem in real traffic conditions

The routing problems are most of the times studied without considering the interactions of the fleet of vehicles with its environment. This paper describes all the steps to produce an evaluation model of such a problem under more realistic assumptions. The combined macroscopic - microscopic approach allows to perform a comparison between an approximate method based on the coupling of a metaheuristic and a simulation model, and an exact solving by CPLEX of a same problem considered in its time-dependent and non time-dependent versions. The proposed environment can evaluate routing problems with capacity, pairing, precedence, time window, maximum travel time, maximum ride time constraints.