An Improved Tabu Search Algorithm For The Petrol-Station Replenishment Problem With Adjustable Demands

This paper discusses the petrol-station replenishment problem with adjustable demands (PSRP-AD). This problem originates from a practical application of fuel delivery, where the main objective is to satisfy all petrol-station demands at a minimal cost. However, the problem includes tanks with adjustable loads while respecting the agreement made between the company and the customers. This agreement allows the company to reduce the delivery up to a given threshold less than the ordered demand. For the PSRP-AD, we first describe the problem and provide the mathematical modelling that distinguishes between the loading and routing phases, followed by an improved tabu search to solve it. Within the framework of the tabu search, we embed the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic in the classical moves in order to speed up the search process. The results show that our solution is competitive on the benchmark instances and outperforms the current delivery method used by the company with a significant improvement.