A Novel Model for the Time Dependent Competitive Vehicle Routing Problem: Modified Random Topology Particle Swarm Optimization

This paper presents a novel model for a time dependent vehicle routing problem when there is a competition between distribution companies for obtaining more sales. In a real-world situation many factors cause the time dependency of travel times, for example traffic condition on peak hours plays an essential role in outcomes of the planned schedule in urban areas. This problem is named as “Time dependent competitive vehicle routing problem” (TDVRPC) which a model is presented to satisfy the “non-passing” property. The main objectives are to minimize the travel cost and maximize the sale in order to serve customers before other rival distributors. To solve the problem, a Modified Random Topology Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (RT-PSO) is proposed and the results are compared with branch and bound algorithm in small size problems. In large scales, comparison is done with original PSO. The results show the capability of the proposed RT-PSO method for handling this problem.