Inductive research in last‐mile delivery routing: Introducing the Re‐Gifting heuristic
针对小型物流服务商负担不起复杂软件的问题，基于实际观察的行为开发并测试了一种优先考虑客户服务的简单车辆路径启发式算法，模拟结果表明该算法在拥有发达高速公路系统的城市地区表现良好。
Abstract The last‐mile problem presents a daunting challenge for many logistics service providers, especially some 7000 small, localized operations for whom the cost of complex software solutions is often prohibitive. As a result, last‐mile dispatchers rely on simple heuristics to ensure adequate customer service at an acceptable cost. This research effort extends prior qualitative work by developing and testing a simple vehicle routing heuristic, based on behaviors observed in practice, that prioritizes customer service over cost against other simple vehicle routing heuristics across a variety of environments using simulation. The results support the inclusion of a customer service focus in vehicle routing and the addition of such heuristics to existing algorithm portfolios, specifically in urban areas with well‐developed highway systems.