%0 Journal Article
%@ 0377-2217
%A Bulhões, Teobaldo
%A Ha, Minh Hoang
%A Martinelli, Rafael
%A Vidal, Thibaut
%A Instituto de Computação, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, Brazil,
%A University of Engineering and Technology, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Viet Nam,
%A Departamento de Engenharia Industrial, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
%A Departamento de Informática, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
%D 2017
%F SisLab:2574
%I Elsevier
%J European Journal of Operational Research
%T The vehicle routing problem with service level constraints
%U https://eprints.uet.vnu.edu.vn/eprints/id/eprint/2574/
%X We consider a vehicle routing problem which seeks to minimize cost subject to service level constraints on several groups of deliveries. This problem captures some essential challenges faced by a logistics provider which operates transportation services for a limited number of partners and should respect contractual obligations on service levels. The problem also generalizes several important classes of vehicle routing problems with profits. To solve it, we propose a compact mathematical formulation, a branch-and-price algorithm, and a hybrid genetic algorithm with population management, which relies on problem-tailored solution representation, crossover and local search operators, as well as an adaptive penalization mechanism establishing a good balance between service levels and costs. Our computational experiments show that the proposed heuristic returns very high-quality solutions for this difficult problem, matches all optimal solutions found for small and medium-scale benchmark instances, and improves upon existing algorithms for two important special cases: the vehicle routing problem with private fleet and common carrier, and the capacitated profitable tour problem. The branch-and-price algorithm also produces new optimal solutions for all three problems.