Exact Branch-Price-and-Cut Algorithms for Vehicle Routing

Abstract

Vehicle routing problems (VRPs) are among the most studied problems in operations research. Nowadays, the leading exact algorithms for solving many classes of VRPs are branch-price-and-cut algorithms. In this survey paper, we highlight the main methodological and modeling contributions made over the years on branch-and-price (branch-price-and-cut) algorithms for VRPs, whether they are generic or specific to a VRP variant. We focus on problems related to the classical VRP—that is, problems in which customers must be served by several capacitated trucks and which are not combinations of a VRP and another optimization problem.