In the last decade, there has been an increasing body of research in dynamic vehicle routing problems. This article surveys the subclass of those problems called dynamic pickup and delivery problems, in which objects or people have to be collected and delivered in real time. It discusses some general issues as well as solution strategies.

Task Allocation and Vehicle Routing in Dynamic Environments

We propose and formulate the vehicle routing problem with demand range (VRPDR), a new variation on the traditional vehicle routing problem. In the VRPDR, the delivery quantity for each customer i is allowed to vary from its original size di by an amount αdi where 0 ≤ α < 1. In adding this limited flexibility to the problem, there is potential to generate significant savings in the total distanc...

Efficient vehicle routing is critical to the operational profitability and customer satisfaction of vehicle fleetrelated businesses, especially in light of increasing, and highly volatile, fuel prices. Growing pressures to reduce negative environmental impacts have suggested that a second metric (vehicle emissions) should also be considered in vehicle routing. Currently, the majority of existin...