The fleet size and mix dial-a-ride problem with reconfigurable vehicle capacity

The problem is modeled as a mixed-integer program derived from the model of the heterogeneous dial-a-ride problem. Vehicle reconfiguration is a lever to efficiently reduce transportation costs, but the number of passengers and vehicle fleet setting make this problem intractable for exact solution methods. A large neighborhood search metaheuristic combined with a set covering component with a reactive mechanism to automatically adjust its parameters is therefore proposed. The resulting framework is evaluated against benchmarks from the literature, used for similar routing problems. It is also applied to a real case, in the context of the transportation of disabled children from their home to medical centers in the city of Lyon, France.