A hybrid algorithm for the capacitated vehicle routing problem with three-dimensional loading constraints

The capacitated vehicle routing problem with three-dimensional loading constraints combines capacitated vehicle routing and three-dimensional loading with additional packing constraints concerning, for example, unloading operations. An efficient hybrid algorithm including a tabu search algorithm for routing and a tree search algorithm for loading is introduced. Computational results are presented for all publicly available test instances. Most of the best solutions previously reported in literature have been improved while the computational effort is drastically reduced compared to other methods.