Service Start Time Optimization in Elementary Shortest Path Problems with Resource Constraints

Besides their real-life applications, elementary shortest path problems with resource constraints are faced as the pricing sub-problem when more complex problems are solved through column generation and branch-and-price. We consider an elementary shortest path problem with resource constraints, where there is a capacitated single vehicle at the depot for serving a set of customers by respecting their associated time windows. The vehicle can start serving the customers at any desired time and can be used for a fixed amount of time. The total transportation cost is defined as a function of the total distance traveled and the total amount of time that the vehicle spends by performing the assigned trip. Every time the vehicle visits a customer, it delivers the required load and collects a revenue in return for the delivery. The objective is to determine the trip to be performed and the service start time from the depot so as to minimize the total loss, which is calculated as the total transportation cost minus the collected revenues. In this study, we develop two exact dynamic programming algorithms which can deal with an infinite number of Pareto-optimal states arising from the fact that the vehicle can depart from the depot at any point in time and charges depending on the amount of time it spends for serving customers. Apart from reporting computational results for our elementary shortest path problem, we also embed it into a column generation framework for the corresponding capacitated vehicle routing problem with time windows. Recent results for the developed branch-and-price algorithm are also reported.