pfih algorithm

Transportation sector generates a considerable part of each nation's gross domestic product and considered among the largest consumers of oil products in the world. This paper proposes a heuristic method for the vehicle routing problem with hard time windows while incorporating the costs of fuel, driver, and vehicle. The proposed heuristic uses a novel speed optimization algorithm to reach its objectives. Performance of the proposed algorithm is validated by comparing its results with the results of the exact method and differential evaluation algorithm for small-scale problems. For large-scale problems, the results of the proposed algorithm are compared with those obtained from the differential evaluation algorithm. Overall, results indicate the good performance of the proposed heuristic algorithm.