Vehicle Routing with Cross-Docking

As part of the current trend towards optimisation of freight transport operations, cross-docking has played an increasing role in recent years, as a means of obtaining better utilisation of vehicles, thereby allowing for a reduction of total driven dis- tance. In order to make efficient use of a cross-dock it is necessary to have access to good data for the transported goods, and proper procedures for handling these data and planning the daily operation. In this paper we present an application of a transportation problem with cross-docking, and our suggested solution approach for solving the corresponding vehicle routing problem.