Multiple Postmen Problems- Fundamentals and New Algorithms

The effective management of transportation resources can reduce the expenses of an organization significantly. For these reasons the study of routing problems has been an important area of operations research for the last fifty years, and its significance is still growing with the increasing numbers of companies and organizations that have to deal with transport activities. This book deals with a major subclass of routing problems, so called postman problems, where services have to be performed along streets, e.g., postal service, waste collection or street cleaning activities. The introductory part of the book gives a comprehensive survey to routing problems. The main part of the book is dedicated to an in-depth treatment of postman problems with multiple postmen. The author presents fundamental and well known methods as well as new algorithms to attack these problems effectively. This book is valuable for mathematicians, computer scientists and economists who have to solve multiple postmen problems in theory and practice.