Optimal Solution of Vehicle Routing Problems with Fractional Objective Function

Abstract

This work proposes a first extensive analysis of the Vehicle Routing Problem with Fractional Objective Function (vrpfof). We investigate how the principal techniques used either in the context of fractional programming or in the context of vehicle routing problems interact. We present new dual and primal bounding procedures which have been incorporated in an exact method. The method proposed allows to extend specific variants of \vrp\ to their counterpart with a fractional objective function. Extensive numerical experiments prove the validity of our approach.