ABSTRACT

The importance of urban cargo transportation has been increasing in recent years due to the rise in e-trade. In cargo delivery, a vehicle deports from a depot and delivers the cargos to the predetermined demand points and turns back to the depot. This distribution process is a classical travelling salesman problem (TSP) and there is an enormous literature regarding TSP. However, the research regarding rural cargo distribution is limited. In this research rural cargo distribution of a company is analysed. Rural cargo distribution process is modelled as a TSP. The solution of the problem is analysed by different heuristic methods. Alternative distribution approaches is discussed for rural distribution.