Rescue Method for Vehicle Routing Problem under Vehicle Disruptions

Vehicle routing problem under disruptions is an important and difficult problem in the area of logistics. When a disruption event happens during the execution process of initial scheduling plan, actions should be taken immediately in order to provide timely services for un-served customers of disrupted vehicles. The earlier the disruption event is dealt with, the better that services are supplied. Focusing on the vehicle routing problem under vehicle disruptions, a rescue method for un-served customers of disrupted vehicle is presented in this paper, along with a disruption measurement method. The rescue method assigns un-served customers of disrupted vehicle to un-disrupted vehicles based on their rescue possibilities. Finally, the rescue method are implemented into software system and tested on Solomon's benchmark cases. Computing results show the feasibility and validity of the rescue method.