The Vehicle Routing Problem
First introduced by Dantzig and Ramser in 1959, the VRP is one of the most studied — and most challenging — combinatorial optimization problems. It asks for the optimal set of routes for a fleet of vehicles that must serve a given set of geographically dispersed customers.
This site is dedicated to the study of the Vehicle Routing Problem. It compiles, in one place and with open access, a great deal of information about the problem: its most common variants, mathematical formulations, benchmark instances, the main exact, heuristic and metaheuristic solution techniques, computational results, a classified bibliography and a curated collection of related links.
Explore the site
What is VRP?
An informal introduction to the problem, why it matters in transportation and logistics, and its relation with the TSP and Bin Packing problems.
Read the introduction →VRP Variants
Capacitated VRP, time windows, multiple depots, split deliveries, backhauls, pickup & delivery, periodic and stochastic VRP, and more.
Browse the variants →Benchmark Instances
The classic benchmark sets used in the literature — Solomon, Cordeau, Golden, Taillard, VRPLIB and others — with their file formats.
See the instances →Solution Techniques
From Clarke & Wright savings and branch & bound to tabu search, genetic algorithms, ant colonies and constraint programming.
Discover the methods →Results
Computational experiments comparing classic heuristics and metaheuristics on well-known benchmark instances.
Check the results →Bibliography & Links
A classified bibliography on the VRP and a curated list of journals, research groups, software and data repositories.
Bibliography → Links →