A branch‐and‐regret heuristic for stochastic and dynamic vehicle routing problems

Abstract

Abstract This paper describes a new Branch‐and‐Regret Heuristic for a class of dynamic and stochastic vehicle routing problems. This work is motivated by a real‐life problem faced by a major transporter in Norway. The heuristic uses stochastic information during the solution process. The new method is shown to be superior to previous heuristics that are uniquely based on a pure dynamic approach. The proposed heuristic is well suited to problems containing stochastic customers, stochastic demands, or both. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. NETWORKS, Vol. 49(4), 330–340 2007