Parallel genetic algorithm for periodic vehicle routing and scheduling problem

The consideration of environmental costs is essentially changing the transportation policy in developed countries. The reduction in total distance travelled will in itself provide environmental benefits due to the reduction in fuel consumed and in the resulting pollutants. The cash deployment strategy for a network of ATMs should take into account the analysis of inventory policies, logistics costs as well as of the routing of replenishment vehicles. The optimal strategy has to focus on the reduction of cash-related expenses while safeguarding that ATMs do not run out of cash. The problem, which can be tackled as a kind of rich vehicle routing problem is in the paper solved using parallel genetic algorithm. The proposed model is able to solve cases with simultaneous requirements of several replenishments for some of the customers (ATMs) daily and a single replenishment in several days for other groups of customers.