On Friday, 13 February, Erasmus School of Economics will organise the Workshop on Vehicle Routing Advances and Applications. Four internationally renowned speakers in the field of Operations Research and Transport will give a lecture on this topic.
- Date
- Friday 13 Feb 2026, 10:00 - 15:00
- Type
- Workshop
- Room
- T3-21
- Building
- Mandeville Building
- Location
- Campus Woudestein
- Ticket information
Registration fee: €17.50
Programme
Affiliation: Department of Business Development and Technology, Aarhus University, Denmark
Rapid technological developments have made real-time data increasingly accessible for operational planning. While real-time data is already fully utilized in certain production systems, and real-time traffic information is well established in transport systems, many other types of sensor data remain underutilized in vehicle routing. A key barrier might be the inherent complexity of vehicle routing problems and the algorithms designed to solve them, which makes integrating sensor inputs and evaluating their potential benefits challenging. This presentation builds on ongoing discussions between newly appointed Professor Remy Spliet and myself, rooted in our shared interest in bridging this gap. In the presentation, we discuss waste collection and snow removal based on sensor information.
Affiliation: Eindhoven University of Technology - Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences
In the two-echelon vehicle routing problem (2E-VRP), the distribution network is split into two echelons. Different vehicles are operated on the first and second echelon to maintain economies of scale and adhere to any vehicle restrictions that may be present in either echelon. Intermediate facilities are located at the borders of the echelons to facilitate the consolidation and transshipment of goods between echelons. Examples of two-echelon distribution systems include express delivery, grocery and hypermarket products distribution, multi-modal freight transportation, city logistics, and ecommerce and home delivery services. In recent years, the body of literature on the 2E-VRP has expanded significantly. Many research papers have appeared in the scientific literature so far, which underlines both the academic and practical relevance of 2E-VRPs. In this review, we structure and revise all literature on the 2E-VRP. Mathematical formulations and benchmark datasets used to test and to evaluate new algorithms are reviewed and discussed.
Affiliation: Polytechnique Montréal & GERAD
Bus scheduling problem is a core optimization problem for public transit agencies. Given a set of timetabled trips to cover during a day and a homogeneous bus fleet assigned to multiple depots, the multiple-depot bus scheduling problem (MDBSP) consists in finding least-cost feasible schedules that cover each trip exactly once. To solve large-scale MDBSP instances, we develop a column generation (CG) heuristic that is applied to a block-based set-partitioning model, where a block starts and ends at a depot without intermediate returns. To reduce degeneracy and improve performance, we combine CG with an improved dynamic constraint aggregation procedure (IDCA). We further devise a hybrid dual-disaggregation (HDD) step to accelerate convergence. Computational results on real-world instances with up to 6,296 trips show significant speed ups resulting from i) using a block-based model rather than a schedule-based model, ii) integrating CG with IDCA, and iii) applying HDD. Together, the last two techniques yield an average speed up factor of 3.3 compared to CG alone, with only marginal degradation in the solution cost.
Affiliation: Georgia Tech / AI4OPT
The multi-compartment vehicle routing problem with multiple time windows (MCVRPMTW) is an extension of the classical vehicle routing problem with time windows that considers vehicles equipped with multiple compartments and customers requiring service across several delivery time windows. The problem incorporates three key compartment-related features: (i) compartment flexibility in the number of compartments, (ii) item-to-compartment compatibility, and (iii) item-to-item compatibility. The problem also accommodates practical operational requirements such as driver breaks. To solve the MCVRPMTW, we develop an exact branch-and-price (B&P) algorithm in which the pricing problem is solved using a labeling algorithm, and several acceleration strategies are introduced. To handle large-scale instances, we propose a rolling-space B&P algorithm that integrates clustering techniques into the solution framework. Extensive computational experiments on instances inspired by a real-world industrial application demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach and provide useful managerial insights for practical implementation.
Registration
If you wish to attend this workshop please register below.
Registration fee: €17.50 (for non-EUR staff)
Registration deadline: Sunday, 1 February 2026
Organiser
- More information
If you have any questions about this workshop, please contact Remy Spliet.
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