Personnel bus routing problem: formulation and solution method

Abstract

In Uiis ihesiK, wc tackle the problem laced by many comptuiies who ofF(M· tra,iis|)ortation services to their personnel. We would reler to it as the Personnel Bus Houting Problem. The transportation services olfered i'('(|uire a fleet of vehicles and a set of routes to daily transport personnel back and forth fi’om the compan.y to their residences. Hence, tlui prol)lem ol designing a (.ra,n.s|)orta.tion service system consists ol three related subprobh'ins: determine bus stops, assign residents to these stops and generate routes that visit the bus sto|)s. The problem is significantly more com|)licat('d than comnuitional vehichi routing problems. It is compounded by several (actors such as the heti'rogeneity of the fleet of vehicles, and the system efficiency that is measurcid by the transportation costs as well as by the level of personnel satisfaction. IVIoreover, the problem size is large because of the number of persomu'l to be scvrviced at a time and the dispersion of their residences on a larg(' g(X)graphica.l area. We present in this thesis a multi-objective formulation of the probh'vn and develop a heuristic method to generate solutions to it. 'The lieuristic solution method is composed of two parts. A clustering pari, where clusters are generated each of which is to be serviced l)y one vehicle. In the s('cond |)art, l)us stops are located, residents are assigned to these bus sto|)s, a.nd routes are constructed simultaneously.