A study on the vehicle size and transfer policy for car rental problems

•The problem of fleet size and vehicle transfer with multi-branches was studied.•An efficient hybrid heuristic approach was proposed to solve this problem.•Sensitivity analyses show the effects of various system parameters.

This study addresses the problems of fleet size and vehicle transfer for car-rental companies with multiple branches. The problem is formulated as a constrained mixed-integer programming model within an environment of dynamic demand. We develop a hybrid heuristic approach to solve this problem, using quantitative results to demonstrate the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed approach. We apply the proposed model to the analysis of a case involving a car-rental company in Taiwan. Sensitivity analyses are also conducted to investigate the effects of various system parameters on the computational results.