Scheduling of Vehicles from a Central Depot to a Number of Delivery Points

Abstract

The optimum routing of a fleet of trucks of varying capacities from a central depot to a number of delivery points may require a selection from a very large number of possible routes, if the number of delivery points is also large. This paper, after considering certain theoretical aspects of the problem, develops an iterative procedure that enables the rapid selection of an optimum or near-optimum route. It has been programmed for a digital computer but is also suitable for hand computation.