Mathematical programming techniques for the solution of hard combinatorial optimization problems arising in transportation

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This research plan is intended to study several classes of vehicle routing problems with synchronization constraints, to propose modeling approaches and efficient exact and heuristic algorithms. Notably, we consider vehicle routing problems with transfers and multiple-echelon vehicle routing problems. These classes of vehicle routing problems share a common characteristic: either because of synchronization at transfer points or consolidation points, the underlying timing issue plays a crucial role in determining the efficiency of a given solution. Indeed, if the timing issue is not properly handled, one may end with a possibly cheaper solution in terms of traveling time, but much more expensive in terms of total ride time (which includes the dead times due to improper synchronization).