Comparing backhauling strategies in vehicle routing using Ant Colony Optimization

In the Vehicle Routing Problem with Backhauls and Time Windows (VRPBTW) customers either receive goods from the depot or send goods to the depot and pickup or delivery at a customer has to occur within a pre-specified time window. The main objective is to minimize the total required fleet size for serving all customers. Secondary objectives are to minimize the total distance travelled or to minimize the total route duration of all vehicles. In this paper we consider a variant of the mixed VRPBTW where backhauls may be served before linehauls on any given route. Besides the modelling aspect of this variant we will study its performance implications when compared to the standard VRPBTW using a heuristic algorithm based on Ant Colony Optimization.