Bibliography

A classified bibliography on the Vehicle Routing Problem and its variants, covering exact algorithms, heuristics, metaheuristics, problem variants and real-world applications. Entries are grouped by topic; use the table of contents below to jump to each section.

Contents

• Algorithms
  • Exact Algorithms
    • Branch and Bound
    • Branch and Cut
  • Heuristics
    • Clarke and Wright
    • Fisher and Jaikumar
    • Matching Based
    • Multi-Route Improvement
    • Petal
    • Sweep
    • Taillard
    • Other
  • Metaheuristics
    • Ant System
    • Constraint Programming
    • Simulated Annealing
    • Deterministic Annealing
    • Genetic Algorithms
    • Tabu search
    • Large & Adaptive Neighborhood Search
  • Multi-objective approaches
  • Matheuristics & Hybrids (2006–2025)
  • Machine Learning for VRP (2015–2025)
• Problems
  • NP-Problem
  • VRP
    • CVRP
    • DVRP
    • MDVRP
    • PVRP
    • SDVRP
    • SVRP
    • VRPB
    • VRPPD
    • VRPSF
    • VRPTW
    • Green & Electric VRP (2006–2025)
    • Rich & Dynamic VRP (2006–2025)
    • Other Variants of VRP
• Books & Surveys (2006–2025)
• Real World Applications

Ant System

• B. Bullnheimer, R. F. Hartl and C. Strauss. Applying the Ant System to the Vehicle Routing Problem. Paper presented at 2nd International Conference on Metaheuristics, Sophia-Antipolis, France, 1997. (PDF, 260 KB)
• B. Bullnheimer, R.F. Hartl and C. Strauss. An Improved Ant system Algorithm for the Vehicle Routing Problem. Paper presented at the Sixth Viennese workshop on Optimal Control, Dynamic Games, Nonlinear Dynamics and Adaptive Systems, Vienna (Austria), May 21-23, 1997, to appear in: Annals of Operations Research (Dawid, Feichtinger and Hartl (eds.): Nonlinear Economic Dynamics and Control, 1999. (PS, 100 KB)
• M. Dorigo. Optimization, Learning and Natural Algorithms. Ph.D. Thesis, Politecnico di Milano, Italy, in Italian, 1992.
• L. M. Gambardella, E. Taillard, G. Agazzi. MACS-VRPTW: A Multiple Ant Colony System for Vehicle Routing Problems with Time Windows. In D. Corne, M. Dorigo and F. Glover, editors, New Ideas in Optimization. McGraw-Hill, 1999. (PDF, 90 KB)
• Doerner, K., Gronalt, M., Hartl, R., Reimman, M., Strauss, C., Stummer, M.. SavingsAnts for the vehicle routing problem. In Cagnoni, S., ed.: EvoWorkshops02. LNCS 2279, Springer-Verlag (2002) 11–20. (PDF, 138 KB)
• M. Reimann, K. Doerner, and R.F. Hartl. Analyzing a Unified Ant System for the VRP and Some of Its Variants. S. Cagnoni et al. (Eds.): EvoWorkshops 2003, LNCS 2611, pp. 300–310, 2003. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003. (PDF, 172 KB)
• M. Reimann, K. Doerner, and R.F. Hartl. D-ants: savings based ants divide and conquer the vehicle routing problem. Computers & Operations Research 31, 563-591, 2004.
• Y. Tian, J. Song, D. Yao and J. Hu. Dynamic vehicle routing problem using hybrid ant system. The Proceedings of the 2003 IEEE Intemational Confuence on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Page(s): 970-974 vol.2, 2003.

Branch and Bound

• U. Blasum, and W. Hochstättler. Application of the Branch and Cut Method to the Vehicle Routing Problem. Technical Report zaik2000-386, Centre of Applied Computer Science, University of Cologne, Germany, 2000. (PS, 102 KB)
• M. L. Fisher. Optimal Solution of Vehicle Routing Problems Using Minimum K-trees. Operations Research 42, 626-642, 1994.
• L. Ladányi, T.K. Ralphs, and L.E. Trotter Jr. Branch, Cut, and Price: Sequential and Parallel, in Computational Combinatorial Optimization. D. Naddef and M. Juenger, eds., Springer, Berlin, 2001. (PDF, 298 KB)
• E. K. Lee and J. E. Mitchell. Branch-and-bound methods for integer programming. In the Encyclopedia of Optimization, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998.
• P. Toth, D. Vigo. Branch-and-bound algorithms for the capacitated VRP. In: Toth, P., Vigo, D. (Eds.), The Vehicle Routing Problem. SIAM: Philadelphia, pp. 29-52, 2001.

Branch and Cut

• P. Augerat, J.M. Belenguer, E. Benavent, A. Corberán, D. Naddef, G. Rinaldi. Computational Results with a Branch and Cut Code for the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem. Research Report 949-M, Universite Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France.
• U. Blasum and W. Hochstattler. Application of the Branch and Cut Method to the Vehicle Routing Problem. Zentrum fur Angewandte Informatik Koln Technical Report zpr2000-386 (2000).
• R. Fukasawa, M.P. de Aragao, M. Reis and E. Uchoa. Robust Branch-and-Cut-and-Price for the Vehicle Routing Problem. Relatorios de Pesquisa em Engenharia de Producao RPEP Vol. 3 No. 8 (2003).
• R. Fukasawa, J. Lysgaard, M.P. de Aragao, M. Reis, E. Uchoa and R.F. Werneck. Robust Branch-and-Cut-and-Price for the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem. D. Bienstock and G. Nemhauser (Eds.): IPCO 2004, LNCS 3064, Springer-Verlag, pp. 1–15, 2004.
• J. Lysgaard, A.N. Letchford, and R.W. Eglese. A New Branch-and-cut Algorithm for Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problems. Math. Program., Ser. A 100: 423–445, Springer-Verlag, 2004.
• T.K. Ralphs, L. Kopman, W.R. Pulleyblank, and L.E. Trotter Jr. On the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem. Mathematical Programming Series B 94 (2003), 343.
• K.M. Wenger. Generic Cut Generation Methods for Routing Problems. Ph.D Dissertation, Institute of Computer Science, University of Heidelberg, Germany, ISBN 3-8322-2545-5, Shaker Verlag, http://www.shaker.de (2003). (bibtex)

Clarke and Wright

• G. Clarke and J. Wright. Scheduling of vehicles from a central depot to a number of delivery points. Operations Research, 12 #4, 568-581, 1964.

Constraint Programming

• P. Shaw. Using Constraint Programming and Local Search Methods to Solve Vehicle Routing Problems. Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP '98), M. Maher and J.-F. Puget (eds.), Springer-Verlag, 417-431, 1998. (PDF, 106 KB)
• L-M. Rousseau, M. Gendreau, G. Pesant and F. Focacci. Solving VRPTWs with Constraint Programming Based Column Generation. Annals of Operation Research 130, 199-216, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004.

Deterministic Annealing

• G. Dueck and T. Scheurer. Threshold Accepting: A General Purpose Optimization Algorithm. Journal of Computational Physics, 90:161-175, 1990.
• G. Dueck. New Optimization Heuristics: The Great Deluge Algorithm and the Record-To-Record Travel. Journal of Computational Physics, 104:86-92, 1993.

Fisher and Jaikumar

• M. L. Fisher and R. Jaikumar. A Generalized Assignment Heuristic for Vehicle Routing. Networks, 11:109-124, 1981.

Genetic Algorithms

• Alba, E., Dorronsoro, B. Solving the Vehicle Routing Problem by Using Cellular Genetic Algorithms. Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimization, EvoCOP'04, LNCS vol. 3004, pp 11-20, Portugal, Springer-Verlag, 2004.
• Alba, E., Dorronsoro, B. Computing Nine New Best-So-Far Solutions for Capacitated VRP with a Cellular Genetic Algorithm. Information Processing Letters, In press, 2005. (PDF, 121 KB)
• Berger, J., Barkaoui, M. A hybrid genetic algorithm for the capacitated vehicle routing problem. In Cantú-Paz, E., ed.: GECCO03. LNCS 2723, Illinois, Chicago, USA, Springer-Verlag, 2003. 646–656.
• J. Berger, M. Barkaoui and O. Bräysy. A Parallel Hybrid Genetic Algorithm for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows. Working paper, Defense Research Establishment Valcartier, Canada, 2001. (PDF, 150 KB)
• O. Bräysy, and M. Gendreau. Genetic Algorithms for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows. Internal Report STF42 A01021, SINTEF Applied Mathematics, Department of Optimization, Oslo, Norway, 2001. (PDF, 149 KB)
• D. Goldberg. Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization, and Machine Learning. Addison Wesley Publishing Company Inc, Ney York, 1989.
• J. H. Holland. Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1975.
• A. Jaszkiewicz and P. Kominek. Genetic Local Search with Distance Preserving Recombination Operator for a Vehicle Routing Problem. European Journal of Operational Research 151:352-364, Elsevier, 2003.
• W. Jih, and J.Y. Hsu. Dynamic Vehicle Routing Using Hybrid Genetic Algorithms. In Proceedings of the 1999 IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation. Detroit, Michigan, May 1999. (PDF, 471 KB)
• K. A. De Jong. An Analysis of the Behavior of a Class of Genetic Adaptative Systems. Ph.D. thesis, University of Michigan, U.S.A, 1975.
• A. Lim, and F. Wang. A Smoothed Dynamic Tabu Search Embedded GRASP for m-VRPTW. In Proceedings of the 16th IEEE International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence (ICTAI 2004), 2004.
• M. J. W. Morgan, and C. L. Mumford. Capacitated Vehicle Routing: perturbing the landscape to fool and algorithm. IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC) Edinburgh, Scotland, 2005, 2271-2277.
• F. B. Pereira, J. Tavares, P. Machado, and E. Costa. GVR: a New Genetic Representation for the Vehicle Routing Problem. In Proceedings of the 13th Irish Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science (AICS 2002), pp. 95-102, Limerick, Ireland, 12-13 September, 2002. (PDF, 172 KB)
• P. Machado, J. Tavares, F. B. Pereira, and E. Costa. Vehicle Routing Problem: Doing it the Evolutionary Way. In Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2002), pp. 690, New York, USA, 9-13 July, 2002. (PDF, 86.6 KB)
• Prins, C. A simple and effective evolutionary algorithm for the vehicle routing problem. Volume 31, Issue 12, October, Pages 1985-2002, 2004.
• K.C. Tan, K. Ou and L.H. Lee. A Messy Genetig Algorithm for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows Constraints. IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC'01), pp. 679-686, 2001.
• J. Tavares, F. B. Pereira, P. Machado, and E. Costa. Crossover and Diversity: A Study about GVR. In Proceedings of the Analysis and Design of Representations and Operators (ADoRo'2003) a bird-of-a-feather workshop at the 2003 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2003), Chicago, Illinois, USA, 12-16 July, 2003. (PDF, 496 KB)
• J. Tavares, F. B. Pereira, P. Machado, and E. Costa. On the Influence of GVR in Vehicle Routing. In Proceedings of the 2003 ACM Symposium On Applied Computing (SAC 2003) - Evolutionary Computation And Optimization Track, pp.753-758, Melbourne, Florida, USA, 9-13 March, 2003. (PDF, 475 KB)
• S.R. Thangiah. Vehicle Routing with Time Windows using Genetic Algorithms. Technical Report SRU-CpSc-TR-93-23, Computer Science Department, Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, PA, 1993. (PDF, 71 KB)
• S. R. Thangiah, K. E. Nygard, and P. L. Juell. Gideon: A genetic algorithm system for vehicle routing with time windows. In Proceedings of the Seventh Conference on Artificial Intelligence Applications, pages 322-325, Miami, Florida, 1991.
• K.Q. Zhu. A Diversity-Controlling Adaptive Genetic Algorithm for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows. 15th IEEE International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence (ICTAI'03), Sacramento, California, USA, pp 176-183, 2003.
• K.Q. Zhu and Z. Liu. Empirical Study of Population Diversity in Permutation-Based Genetic Algorithm. K. Deb et al. (Eds.): GECCO 2004, LNCS 3103, Springer-Verlag, pp. 420–421, 2004.

Matching Based Algorithm

• K. Altinkemer, and B. Gavish. Parallel Savings Based Heuristic for the Delivery Problem. Operations Research, 39:456-469, 1991.
• M. Desrochers, and T. W. Verhoog. A Matching Based Savings Algorithm for the Vehicle Routing Problem. Les Cahiers du GERAD G-89-04, École des Hautes Études Commerciales de Montréal, 1989.

Multi-Objective Approaches

• Tan, K. C., Lee, T. H., Chew, Y. H. and Lee, L. H. (2003). A hybrid multiobjective evolutionary algorithm for solving truck and trailer vehicle routing problems. IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation 2003, Canberra, Australia, 8-12 December, pp. 2134-2141.
• N. Jozefowiez, F. Semet and E-G. Talbi. Parallel and Hybrid Models for Multi-objective Optimization: Application to the Vehicle Routing Problem. J.J. Merelo Guervós et al. (Eds.): PPSN VII, LNCS 2439, Springer-Verlag, pp. 271–280, 2002.
• S. Sa'adah, P. and B. Paechter. Improving Vehicle Routing Using a Customer Waiting Time Colony. J. Gottlieb and G.R. Raidl (Eds.): EvoCOP 2004, LNCS 3004, Springer-Verlag, pp. 188–198, 2004.

Multi-Route Improvement

• G. A. P. Kinderwater and M. W. P. Savelsbergh. Vehicle Routing: Handling Edge Exchanges. In E. H. L. Aarts and J. K. Lenstra (eds), Local Search in Combinatorial Optimization Wiley, Chichester, 1997.
• P. M. Thompson and H. N. Psaraftis. Cyclic Transfer Algorithms for the Multivehicle Routing and Scheduling Problems. Operations Research 41:935-946, 1993.
• A. Van Breedam. An Analysis of the Behavior of Heuristics for the Vehicle Routing Problem for a Selection of Problems with Vehicle-Related. Customer-Related, and Time-Related Constraints. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Antwerp, 1994.

Petal

• D. M. Ryan, C. Hjorring and F. Glover. Extensions of the Petal Method for Vehicle Routing. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 44:289-296, 1993.

Simulated Annealing

• O. Arbelaitz, C. Rodriguez and I. Zamakola. Low Cost Parallel Solutions for the VRPTW Optimization Problem. 2001 International Conference on Parallel Processing Workshops. IEEE Computer Society. Valencia, Spain. pp. 176-181, 2001.
• P. Czarnas, Z.J. Czech and P. Gocyla. Parallel Simulated Annealing for Bicriterion Optimization Problems. R. Wyrzykowski et al. (Eds.): PPAM 2003, LNCS 3019, Springer-Verlag, pp. 233–240, 2004.
• Z.J. Czech, P. Czarnas. Parallel simulated annealing for the vehicle routing problem with time windows. 10th Euromicro Workshop on Parallel, Distributed and Network-based Processing, Canary Islands - Spain, 376-383 (January 9-11, 2002). (PDF, 101 KB)

Sweep

• B. E. Gillet and L. R. Miller. A Heuristic Algorithm for the Vehicle Dispatch Problem. Operations Research, 22:340-349, 1974.
• A. Wren. Computers in Transport Planning and Operation. Ian Allan, London, 1971.
• A. Wren and A. Holliday. Computer Scheduling of Vehicles from One or More Depots to a Number of Delivery Points. Operational Research Quarterly, 23:333-344, 1972.
• J. Renaud and F.F. Boctor. A Sweep-Based Algorithm for the Fleet Size and Mix Vehicle Routing Problem. European Journal of Operational Research 140: 618-628, Elsevier, 2002.

Tabu Search

• A. Amberg, W. Domschke and S. Voss (2000). Multiple Center Capacitated Arc Routing Problems: A Tabu Search Algorithm using Capacitated Trees. European Journal of Operational Research 124, 360-376. (PDF, 239 KB)
• P. Badeau, M. Gendreau, F. Guertin, J.-Y. Potvin and E. Taillard. A Parallel Tabu Search Heuristic for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows. Transportation Research - C 5, 109-122, 1997. (PS, 730 KB)
• O. Bräysy, and M. Gendreau. Tabu Search Heuristics for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows. Internal Report STF42 A01022, SINTEF Applied Mathematics, Department of Optimisation, Oslo, Norway, 2001. (PDF, 309 KB)
• J.-F. Cordeau, G. Laporte, A. Mercier. A unified tabu search heuristic for vehicle routing problems with time windows. Journal of the Operational Research Society 52, 928-936, 2001.
• F. Glover. Future Paths for Integer Programming and Links to Artificial Intelligence. Computers and Operations Research, 13:533-549, 1986.
• J. Homberger, and H. Gehring. Two Evolutionary Metaheuristics for the Vehicle Routing Problems with Time Windows. INFOR 37, 297-318, 1999. (PDF, 176 KB)
• J. Kelly and J. P. Xu. A Network Flow-Based Tabu Search Heuristic for the Vehicle Routing Problem. Transportation Science, 30:379-393, 1996.
• C. Rego (2001). Node Ejection Chains for the Vehicle Routing Problem: Sequential and Parallel Algorithms. Parallel-Computing 27, 201-222. (PDF, 249 KB)
• Y. Rochat and É. D. Taillard. Probabilistic Diversification and Intensification in Local Search for Vehicle Routing. Journal of Heuristics, 1:147-167, 1995.
• É. D. Taillard, P. Badeau, M. Gendreau, F. Guertin, J.Y. Potvin. A tabu search heuristic for the vehicle routing problem with soft time windows. Transportation science 31, 1997, 170-186. (PS, 295 KB)
• S. R. Thangiah, I. H. Osman, T. Sun. Hybrid Genetic Algorithm Simulated Annealing and Tabu Search Methods for Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows. Technical Report 27, Computer Science Department, Slippery Rock University, 1994. (PDF, 124 KB)
• P. Toth D. Vigo. The Granular Tabu Search (and its Application to the Vehicle Routing Problem). Working Paper, DEIS, University of Bologna, 1998.

Taillard

• I. H. Osman. Metastrategy Simulated Annealing and Tabu Search Algorithms for the Vehicle Routing Problem. Annals of Operations Research 41:421-451, 1993.
• É. D. Taillard. Parallel Iterative Search Methods for Vehicle Routing Problems. Networks 23, 661-673, 1993.
• A. Volgenant and R. Jonker. The Symmetric Traveling Salesman Problem and Edge Exchange in Minimal 1-Trees. European Journal of Operational Research 12:394-403, 1983.

NP-Problem

• S. A. Cook. The complexity of theorem proving procedures. Proceedings, Third Annual ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing, ACM, New York, 1971, 151-158.
• S. A. Cook. The P versus NP Problem. Manuscript prepared for the Clay Mathematics Institute for the Millennium Prize Problems, April, 2000. (PDF, 119 KB)
• Alan Turing. On computable numbers with an application to the entscheidnungs problem. Proc. London Math. Soc. ser. 2, 42:230–265, 1936-7.

Other Heuristics and Metaheuristics

• J. Antes, and U. Derigs. A New Parallel Tour Construction Algorithm for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows. Working Paper, Department of Economics and Computer Science, University of Köln, Germany, 1995. (PS, 206 KB)
• D. Applegate, W. Cook, S. Dash and A. Rohe. Solution of a Min-Max Vehicle Routing Problem. Working Paper, Algorithms and Optimization Department, ATT Labs. To appear in INFORMS Journal on Computing, 2001. (PS, 271 KB)
• A. Bachem, W. Hochstättler and M. Malich. The Simulated Trading Heuristic for Solving Vehicle Routing Problems. Discrete Applied Mathematics 65, 47-72, 1996. (PS, 119 KB)
• B. De Backer, V. Furnon, P. Shaw, P. Kilby, and P. Prosser. Solving Vehicle Routing Problems Using Constraint Programming and Metaheuristics. Journal of Heuristics, 6:501-523, 2000. (PDF, 231 KB)
• R. Bent, and P. Van Hentenryck. A Two-Stage Hybrid Local Search for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows. Technical Report CS-01-06, Department of Computer Science, Brown University, USA, 2001. (PS, 486 KB)
• D. Bertsimas, and D. Simchi-Levi. The New Generation of Vehicle Routing Research: Robust Algorithms Addressing Uncertainty. Operations Research 44, 286-304, 1996. (PS, 314 KB)
• J. Bramel, and D. Simchi-Levi. Probabilistic Analysis and Practical Algorithms for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows. Operations Research 44, 501-509, 1992. (PS, 196 KB)
• J. B. Bramel and D. Simchi-Levi. A location Based Heuristic for General Routing Problems. Operations Research, 43:649-660, 1995. (PS, 220 KB)
• J. Bramel, and D. Simchi-Levi. On the Effectiveness of Set Partitioning Formulations for the Vehicle Routing Problem. Operations Research 45, 295-301, 1997. (PS, 177 KB)
• O. Bräysy and M. Gendreau. Metaheuristics for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows. SINTEF Applied Mathematics, Research Council of Norway, 2001. (DOC, 558 KB)
• O. Bräysy and M. Gendreau. Route Construction and Local Search Algorithms for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows. SINTEF Applied Mathematics, Research Council of Norway, 2001. (DOC, 761 KB)
• O. Bräysy. A Reactive Variable Neighborhood Search Algorithm for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows. To be published in INFORMS Journal on Computing, 2001. (PDF, 427 KB)
• O. Bräysy, and M. Gendreau. Route Construction and Local Search Algorithms for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows. Internal Report STF42 A010214, SINTEF Applied Mathematics, Department of Optimisation, Oslo, Norway, 2001. (PDF, 352 KB)
• Y. Caseau, F. Laburthe and G. Silverstein. A Meta-Heuristic Factory for Vehicle Routing Problems. J. Jaffar (Ed.): CP'99, LNCS 1713, Springer-Verlag, pp. 144-159, 1999.
• M. Charikar, S. Khuller and B. Raghavachari. Algorithms for Capacitated Vehicle Routing. SIAM Journal on Computing 31, 665-682, 2001. (PS, 263 KB)
• A.V. Donati, R. Montemanni, L.M. Gambardella and A.E. Rizzoli. Integration of a Robust Shortest Path Algorithm with a Time Dependent Vehicle Routing Model and Applications. International Symposium on Computational Intelligence for Measurement Systems and Applications (CIMSA 2003), Lugano, Switzerland, 26-31, 2003.
• L. M. Gambardella. Vehicle Routing Problems (VRPs). Technische Universiteit Eindhoven. Short Course; November 28-29 2000. (PDF, 1.76 MB)
• M. Gendreau, G. Laporte, and J.-Y. Potvin. Metaheuristics for the vehicle routing problem. Technical Report CRT-963, Centre de Recherche sur les Transports, Université de Montréal, jan 1994. (PS, 535 KB)
• M. Gendreau, P. Soriano and L. Salvail. Metaheuristics for the vehicle routing problem. In Lenstra, J. and Aarts, E., editors, Local Search Algorithms, Chichester. John Wiley and Sons.
• L.C.T. Gomes and F.J. Zuben. Vehicle Routing Based on Self-Organization with and without Fuzzy Inference. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems (FUZZ-IEEE'2002), vol. 2, in the 2002 IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence (WCCI'2002), Honolulu, Hawaii, pp. 1310-1315, 2002.
• V. Gorodetski, O. Karsaev and V. Konushy. Multi-agent System for Resource Allocation and Scheduling. V. Marík et al. (Eds): CEEMAS 2003, LNAI 2691, Springer-Verlag, pp. 236-246, 2003.
• M. Gronalt, R.F. Hartl and M. Reimann. New Savings Based Algorithms for Time Constrained Pickup and Delivery of Full Truckloads. European Journal of Operational Research 151: 520-535, Elsevier, 2003.
• K. Jeevan Madhu and S. Saxena. Parallel Algorithms for Vehicle Routing Problems. Proceedings of Fifth International Conference on High Performance Computing, 17-20 December, 1998, Madras, India. (PDF, 182 KB)
• P. Kilby, P. Prosser and P. Shawn. A Comparison of Traditional and Constraint-Based Heuristic Methods on Vehicle Routing Problems with Side Constraints. Constraints 5, 389-414, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000.
• G. Laporte, M. Gendreau, J-Y. Potvin, F. Semet. Classical and Modern Heuristics for the vehicle routing problem. International Transaction in Operational Research, vol. 7, pp. 285-300, 2000. (PS, 432 KB)
• G. Laporte and F. Semet. Classical Heuristics for the Vehicle Routing Problem. Les Cahiers du GERAD, G98-54, Group for Research in Decision Analysis, Montreal, Canada, 1998. (PS, 364 KB)
• A.N. Letchford, R.W. Eglese and J. Lysgaard. Multistars, partial multistars and the capacitated vehicle routing problem. Math. Program., Ser. A 94: 21–40, 2002.
• Z. Li, S. Guo, F. Wang and A. Lim. Improved GRASP with Tabu Search for Vehicle Routing with Both Time Window and Limited Number of Vehicles. R. Orchard et al. (Eds.): IEA/AIE 2004, LNAI 3029, Springer-Verlag, pp. 552-561, 2004.
• H. Li and A. Lim. Local Search with Annealing-Like Restarts to Solve the VRPTW. European Journal of Operational Research 150: 115-127, Elsevier, 2003.
• Y. Marinakis and A. Migdalas. Heuristic Solutions of Vehicle Routing Problems in Supply Chain Management. 2001. (PS, 246 KB)
• D. Mester and O. Bräysy. Active Guided Evolution Strategies for Large Scale Vehicle Routing Problems with Time Windows. Computers & Operations Research 32, 1593-1614, 2005.
• D. Mester and O. Bräysy. Active Guided Evolution Strategies for Large Scale Vehicle Routing Problem. Working Paper, University of Haifa, Israel, 2004.
• N. Mukai, J. Feng and T. Watanabe. Heuristic Approach Based on Lambda-Interchange for VRTPR-Tree on Specific Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows. R. Orchard et al. (Eds.): IEA/AIE 2004, LNAI 3029, Springer-Verlag, pp. 229-238, 2004.
• G. Nikolakopoulou, S. Kortesis, A. Synefaki and R. Kalfakakou. Solving a Vehicle Routing Problem by Balancing the Vehicles Time Utilization. European Journal of Operational Research 152: 520-527, Elsevier, 2004.
• H. Paessens. The Savings Algorithm for the Vehicle Routing Problem. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 34:336, 1988.
• C. Prins. Efficient Heuristics for the Heterogeneous Fleet Multitrip VRP with Application to a Large-Scale Real Case. Journal of Mathematical Modelling and Algorithms 1: 135-150, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002.
• K. Qili and K. Ong. A reactive method for real time dynamic vehicle routing problem. 12th ICTAI 2000, Vancouver, Canada, 2000. 18. (PDF, 416 KB)
• C. Rego and P. Leão. A Scatter Search Tutorial for Graph-Based Permutation Problems. 2001. (PDF, 1.00 MB)
• J. Schulze, T. Fahle. A parallel algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time window constraints. Technical Report, University of Paderborn, 1997; to appear in Ann. Oper. Res. (PDF, 289 KB)
• J. Sniezek and L. Bodin. Cost Models for Vehicle Routing Problems. Proceedings of the 35th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-35'02), Hawaii, pp 83-94, 2002.
• T. Takeno, Y. Tsujimura and G. Yamazaki. A Single-Phase Method Based on Evolution Calculation for Vehicle Routing Problem. Fourth International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Multimedia Applications (ICCIMA'01), Yokusike City, Japan, pp. 103-117, 2001.
• V. Tam and L.C.Y. Tseng. Effective Heuristics to Solve Pickup and Delivery Problems with Time Windows. 15th IEEE International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence (ICTAI'03), Sacramento, California, USA, IEEE Computer Society, 184-188, 2003.
• V. Tam and K.T. Ma. Combining Meta-Heuristics to Effectively Solve the Vehicle Routing Problems with Time Windows. Artificial Intelligence Review, vol. 21, iss. 2, pp. 87-112(26) Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004.
• C. D. Tarantilis. Solving the vehicle routing problem with adaptive memory programming methodology. Computers & Operations Research, in press, 2004.
• C.D. Tarantilis and C.T. Kiranoudis. BoneRoute: An Adaptive Memory-Based Method for Effective Fleet Management. Annals of Operations Research 115: 227-241, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002.
• C.D. Tarantilis, C.T. Kiranoudis and V.S. Vassiliadis. A Threshold Accepting Metaheuristic for the Heterogeneous Fixed Fleet Vehicle Routing Problem. European Journal of Operational Research 152: 148-158, Elsevier, 2004.
• A. Van Breedam. Comparing Descent Heuristics and Metaheuristics for the Vehicle Routing Problem. Computers & Operations Research 28: 289-315, 2001.
• A. Van Breedam. A Parametric Analysis of Heuristics for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Side-Constraints. European Journal of Operational Research 137: 348-370, Elsevier, 2002.

Large & Adaptive Neighborhood Search

• S. Ropke and D. Pisinger. An Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search Heuristic for the Pickup and Delivery Problem with Time Windows. Transportation Science 40(4): 455-472, 2006.
• D. Pisinger and S. Ropke. A General Heuristic for Vehicle Routing Problems. Computers & Operations Research 34(8): 2403-2435, 2007.
• D. Pisinger and S. Ropke. Large Neighborhood Search. In M. Gendreau and J.-Y. Potvin (eds.), Handbook of Metaheuristics, 2nd ed., Springer, pp. 399-419, 2010.
• T. Vidal, T.G. Crainic, M. Gendreau, N. Lahrichi and W. Rei. A Hybrid Genetic Algorithm for Multidepot and Periodic Vehicle Routing Problems. Operations Research 60(3): 611-624, 2012.
• T. Vidal, T.G. Crainic, M. Gendreau and C. Prins. A Hybrid Genetic Algorithm with Adaptive Diversity Management for a Large Class of Vehicle Routing Problems with Time-Windows. Computers & Operations Research 40(1): 475-489, 2013.

Matheuristics & Hybrids (2006–2025)

• C. Archetti and M.G. Speranza. Matheuristics: A Survey. In J.-Y. Potvin (ed.), Metaheuristics, Springer International Series in Operations Research & Management Science 272, 2019.
• A. Goel and V. Gruhn. A General Vehicle Routing Problem. European Journal of Operational Research 191(3): 650-660, 2008.
• K. Braekers, K. Ramaekers and I. Van Nieuwenhuyse. The Vehicle Routing Problem: State of the Art Classification and Review. Computers & Industrial Engineering 99: 300-313, 2016.
• J. C. Rivera, H. M. Afsar and C. Prins. A Multistart Iterated Local Search for the Multitrip Cumulative Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem. Computational Optimization and Applications 61(1): 159-187, 2015.
• K. Fleszar and I.H. Osman. A Variable Neighborhood Search Algorithm for the Open Vehicle Routing Problem. European Journal of Operational Research 195(3): 803-809, 2009.

Machine Learning for Vehicle Routing (2015–2025)

• I. Bello, H. Pham, Q.V. Le, M. Norouzi and S. Bengio. Neural Combinatorial Optimization with Reinforcement Learning. Workshop at ICLR 2017.
• W. Kool, H. van Hoof and M. Welling. Attention, Learn to Solve Routing Problems!. International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) 2019.
• M. Nazari, A. Oroojlooy, M. Takáč and L.V. Snyder. Reinforcement Learning for Solving the Vehicle Routing Problem. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) 31, 2018.
• A. Hottung and K. Tierney. Neural Large Neighborhood Search for the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem. Proceedings of the 24th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI 2020).
• B. Peng, J. Wang and Z. Zhang. A Deep Reinforcement Learning Algorithm Using Dynamic Attention Model for Vehicle Routing Problems. International Symposium on Intelligence Computation and Applications (ISICA) 2019.
• Y. Bengio, A. Lodi and A. Prouvost. Machine Learning for Combinatorial Optimization: A Methodological Tour d'Horizon. European Journal of Operational Research 290(2): 405-421, 2021.

Green & Electric Vehicle Routing (2006–2025)

• T. Bektaş and G. Laporte. The Pollution-Routing Problem. Transportation Research Part B: Methodological 45(8): 1232-1250, 2011.
• A. Schneider, M. Stenger and D. Goeke. The Electric Vehicle-Routing Problem with Time Windows and Recharging Stations. Transportation Science 48(4): 500-520, 2014.
• C. Erdoğan and E. Miller-Hooks. A Green Vehicle Routing Problem. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 48(1): 100-114, 2012.
• E. Demir, T. Bektaş and G. Laporte. A Review of Recent Research on Green Road Freight Transportation. European Journal of Operational Research 237(3): 775-793, 2014.
• J. M. V. Sassi, I. K. Cherif and W. R. Ochi. Electric Vehicle Routing Problems: A Survey. Sustainable Operations and Computers 2: 116-131, 2021.
• D. Peña, B. Dorronsoro and P. Ruiz. Sustainable waste collection optimization using electric vehicles. Sustainable Cities and Society 105: 105343, 2024. (DOI)

Rich & Dynamic Vehicle Routing (2006–2025)

• R. Lahyani, M. Khemakhem and F. Semet. Rich Vehicle Routing Problems: From a Taxonomy to a Definition. European Journal of Operational Research 241(1): 1-14, 2015.
• V. Pillac, M. Gendreau, C. Guéret and A.L. Medaglia. A Review of Dynamic Vehicle Routing Problems. European Journal of Operational Research 225(1): 1-11, 2013.
• M. Gendreau, G. Ghiani and E. Guerriero. Time-Dependent Routing Problems: A Review. Computers & Operations Research 64: 189-197, 2015.
• F. S. Soares, A. C. L. Lacerda, R. M. B. R. Araújo, J. C. B. Melo, M. J. F. Souza. A Hybrid Matheuristic for the Two-Echelon Vehicle Routing Problem. Computers & Operations Research 141: 105-131, 2022.
• A. M. Campbell and J. H. Thomas. Probabilistic Traveling Salesman Problem with Deadlines. Transportation Science 42(1): 1-21, 2008.

Books & Surveys (2006–2025)

• B. Golden, S. Raghavan and E. Wasil (eds.). The Vehicle Routing Problem: Latest Advances and New Challenges. Springer, Operations Research/Computer Science Interfaces Series 43, 2008.
• P. Toth and D. Vigo (eds.). Vehicle Routing: Problems, Methods, and Applications. 2nd edition, MOS-SIAM Series on Optimization, SIAM, Philadelphia, 2014.
• G. Laporte. Fifty Years of Vehicle Routing. Transportation Science 43(4): 408-416, 2009.
• R. Baldacci, A. Mingozzi and R. Roberti. Recent Exact Algorithms for Solving the Vehicle Routing Problem under Capacity and Time Window Constraints. European Journal of Operational Research 218(1): 1-6, 2012.
• G. Laporte, S. Ropke and T. Vidal. Heuristics for the Vehicle Routing Problem. In P. Toth and D. Vigo (eds.), Vehicle Routing: Problems, Methods, and Applications, 2nd ed., SIAM, pp. 87-116, 2014.
• T. Vidal. Hybrid Genetic Search for the CVRP: Open-Source Implementation and SWAP* Neighborhood. Computers & Operations Research 140: 105-643, 2022.

VRP

• L. Bianchi. Notes on Dynamic Vehicle Routing - The State of Art. Technical Report, IDSIA-05-01, IDSIA, Switzerland, 2000. (PS, 81 KB)
• W. Burrows. The Vehicle Routing Problem with Loadsplitting: A Heuristic Approach. In 24th Annual Conference of the Operational Research Society of New Zealand, pages 33-38, 1988.
• G. B. Dantzig and R.H. Ramser. The Truck Dispatching Problem. Management Science 6, 80–91, 1959.
• T. Duncan. Experiments in the use of Neighborhood Search Techniques for Vehicle Routing. BCS Expert Systems, 1995. (PDF, 205 KB)
• F. Maffioli. The vehicle routing problem: A book review. Quarterly Journal of the Belgian, French and Italian Operations Research Societies (4OR) 1: 149–153, Springer-Verlag, 2003.
• J. K. Lenstra, A.H.G. Rinnooy Kan. Complexity of vehicle routing and scheduling problems. Networks, 11, pp. 221-227, 1981.
• B. L. Golden, A. A. Assad (Eds.). Vehicle Routing: Methods and Studies, Studies in Management Science and Systems. Vol. 16, Elsevier Science Publ., Amsterdam, 1988, 7-45.
• G. Reinelt. TSPLIB - A Traveling Salesman Problem Library. ORSA Journal on Computing 3, 376-384, 1991.
• P. Toth, D. Vigo. The Vehicle Routing Problem. Monographs on Discrete Mathematics and Applications. SIAM, Philadelphia, 2001.

CVRP

• F. Li, B. Golden, E. Wasil. Very large-scale vehicle routing: new test problems, algorithms, and results. Computers & Operations Research, in press, 2004.
• T. Ralphs, J. Hartman and M. Galati. Capacitated Vehicle Routing and Some Related Problems. Some CVRP Slides. Rutgers University, 2001. (PDF, 183 KB)
• T.K. Ralphs, L. Kopman, W.R. Pulleyblank, and L.E. Trotter Jr. On the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem. Math. Program., Ser. B 94: 343–359, Springer-Verlag, 2003. Preliminary version: (PDF, 224 KB)

DVRP

• D.M. Chitty and M.L. Hernandez. A Hybrid Ant Colony Optimisation Technique for Dynamic Vehicle Routing. K. Deb et al. (Eds.): GECCO 2004, LNCS 3102, Springer-Verlag, pp. 48–59, 2004.
• Y. Tian, J. Song, D. Yao and J. Hu. Dynamic Vehicle Routing Problem Using Hybrid Ant System. Proceedings of the 2003 IEEE Intemational Confuence on Intelligent Transportation Systems. pp 970-974, 2003.

MDVRP

• C. Hjorring. The Vehicle Routing Problem and Local Search Metaheuristics. Chapter 2. PhD thesis, Department of Engineering Science, The University of Auckland, 1995. (PS, 526 KB)

PVRP

• E. Angelelli and M.G. Speranza. The Periodic Vehicle Routing Problem with Intermediate Facilities. European Journal of Operational Research 137:233-247, Elsevier, 2002.
• S. Baptista, R.C. Oliveira and E. Zúquete. A Period Vehicle Routing Case Study. European Journal of Operational Research 139:220-229, Elsevier, 2002.

SDVRP

• M. Dror, G. Laporte, P. Trudeau. Vehicle routing with split deliveries. Discrete Appl. Math. 50, 239-254 (1994).
• C. Archetti, R. Mansini, M.G. Speranza. The Split Delivery Vehicle Routing Problem with Small Capacity. Tecnical Report n. 201, Department of Quantitative Methods, University of Brescia 2001. (PDF, 159 KB)

SVRP

• G. Laporte, and F.V. Louveaux. Solving Stochastic Routing Problems with the Integer L-shaped Method. In Fleet Management and Logistics, T.G. Crainic and G. Laporte (eds.), 159-167, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 1998. (PS, 458 KB)

VRPB

• Cumhur Alper Gelogullari. Vehicle Routing Problem with Backhauls. Power Point Presentation. (PPT, 308 KB)
• M. Goetschalckx, and Jacobs-Blecha, C. The Vehicle Routing Problem with Backhauls: An Effective Heuristic Based on the Generalized Assignment Problem with Ring Metric Norm. Material Handling Research Center Technical Report TR-88-13.
• M. Goetschalckx, and Jacobs-Blecha, C. The Vehicle Routing Problem with Backhauls: An Optimization Based Approach. Proceedings of the 2nd Industrial Engineering Research Conference, May 26-27, 1993, Los Angeles, California, pp. 504-509.
• C. Jacobs-Blecha, and M. Goetschalckx. The vehicle routing problem with backhauls: properties and solution algorithms. Technical Report, School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia. Presented at the National Transportation Research Board, January 13-15, 1992, Washington DC. (PDF, 144 KB)

VRPPD

• Gribkovskaia, Irina; Halskau, Øyvind; Bugge Myklebost, Kim N. Models for Pick-up and Deliveries from Depots with Lasso Solutions. (PDF, 71.9 KB)
• G. Righini. Approximation algorithms for the vehicle routing problem with pick-up and delivery. Note del Polo - Ricerca 33, Polo Didattico e di Ricerca di Crema, Università degli Studi di Milano, Luglio 2000. (PS, 566 KB)

VRPSF

• J.F. Bard, L. Huang, M. Dror, and P. Jaillet. A Branch and Cut Algorithm for the VRP with Satellite Facilities. IIE Transactions 30, pp 821-834. (PDF, 192 KB)

VRPTW

• Cordeau, J.-F., Desaulniers, G., Desrosiers, J., Solomon, M.M., Soumis, F. VRP with Time Windows. In P. Toth and D. Vigo (eds.): The Vehicle Routing Problem, SIAM Monographs on Discrete Mathematics and Applications, vol. 9, Philadelphia, PA, 157-193, 2002. (PS, 534 KB)
• M. M. Solomon. Algorithms for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows. Transportation Science, 29(2), pp. 156-166, 1995.
• H.C. Lau, M. Sim and K.M. Teo. Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows and a Limited Number of Vehicles. European Journal of Operational Research 148: 559-569, Elsevier, 2003.
• L.H. Lee, K.C. Tan, K. Ou and Y.H. Chew. Vehicle Capacity Planning System: A Case Study on Vehicle Routing Problem With Time Windows. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Part A, 33(2), 169-178, 2003.
• A. Rhalibi and G. Kelleher. An Approach to Dynamic Vehicle Routing, Rescheduling and Disruption Metrics. Systems, man and cybernetics. Proceedings (SMCC'03), Washigton D.C., U.S.A., 3613-3618, 2003.
• Russell RA. Hybrid heuristics for the vehicle routing problem with time windows. Transportation Science 29: 156–66, 1995.

Other Variants of VRP

• G. Ghiani, F. Guerriero, G. Laporte amd R. Musmanno. Real-Time Vehicle Routing: Solution Concepts, Algorithms and Parallel Computing Strategies. European Journal of Operational Research 151: 1-11, Elsevier, 2003.
• H. Glaab. A New Variant of a Vehicle Routing Problem: Lower and Upper Bounds. European Journal of Operational Research 139: 557-577, Elsevier, 2002.
• G. M. Giaglis, I. Minis, A. Tatarakis, V. Zeimpekis. Minimizing Logistics Risk through Real-Time Vehicle Routing and Mobile Technologies: Research To-Date and Future Trends. International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, Vol. 34, No. 9, pp.749-764, 2004. (PDF, 286 KB)

Real World Applications

• S. Baptista, R.C. Oliveira and E. Zúquete. A Period Vehicle Routing Case Study. European Journal of Operational Research 139:220-229, Elsevier, 2002.
• W-C. Chiang and R.A. Russell. Integrating Purchasing and Routing in a Propane Gas Supply Chain. European Journal of Operational Research 154: 710-729, Elsevier, 2004.
• K. Hirota, F. Dong, K. Chen and Y. Takama. Vehicle Routing, Scheduling and Dispatching System Based on HIMS Model. N.R. Pal and M. Sugeno (eds.): AFSS 2002, LNAI 2275, Springer-Verlag, pp 76-84, 2002.
• B. Kazak and K. Altinkemer. Optimization of Multi-Feeder (Depot) Printed Circuit Board Manufacturing with Error Guarantees. European Journal of Operational Research 150: 370-394, Elsevier, 2003.
• N.F. Matsatsinis. Towards a Decision Support System for the Ready Concrete Distribution System: A Case of a Greek Company. European Journal of Operational Research 152: 487-499, Elsevier, 2004.
• L. Özdamar, E. Ekinci and B. Küçükyazici. Emergency Logistics Planning in Natural Disasters. Annals of Operations Research 129: 217-245, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004.
• R. Ruiz, C. Maroto and J. Alcaraz. A Decision Support System for a Real Vehicle Routing Problem. European Journal of Operational Research 153: 593-606, Elsevier, 2004.
• E. Sambracos, J.A. Paravantis, C.D. Tarantilis and C.T. Kiranoudis. Dispatching of Small Containers via Coastal Freight Liners: The Case of the Aegean Sea. European Journal of Operational Research 152: 365-381, Elsevier, 2004.
• C.D. Tarantilis, D. Diakoulaki and C.T. Kiranoudis. Combination of Geographical Information System and Efficient Routing Algorithms for Real Life Distribution Operations. European Journal of Operational Research 152: 437-453, Elsevier, 2004.
• D.V. Tu and A. Pinnoi. Vehicle Routing-Scheduling for Waste Collection in Hanoi. European Journal of Operational Research 125: 449-468, Elsevier, 2000.
• K.G. Zografos and K.N. Androutsopoulos. A Heuristic Algorithm for Solving Hazardous Materials Distribution Problems. European Journal of Operational Research 152: 507-519, Elsevier, 2004.