A MATHEMATICAL MODEL FOR THE VEHICLE ROUTING PROBLEM WITH TIME WINDOWS AND MULTIPLE USE OF VEHICLES

In this paper, the vehicle routing problem with time windows and multiple use of vehicles (vrp_tw_muv) which is the generalized version of the classic vehicle routing problem, is considered. unlike the classic vehicle routing problem, vehicles are allowed to use more than one route in the vrp_tw_muv. the vrp_tw_muv is encountered usually in the distribution systems in which the product‟s shelf-life is short or duration of the distribution is short. although, the vrp_tw_muv is often encountered in practice, there are very few studies in literature. in this study, a mathematical model proposed for the vrp_tw_muv. the proposed mathematical model is compared in terms of time to reach the best solution on the test problems of various sizes derived from the literature.