Their work investigates a novel type of driver routing and scheduling problem motivated by a practical application in long-distance bus networks. A key difference from other crew scheduling problems is that drivers can be exchanged between buses at arbitrary intermediate stops en route such that the problem requires additional synchronization constraints. The authors present a mathematical model for this problem that leverages a time-expanded multi-digraph and derive bounds for the total number of required drivers. Moreover, they develop a destructive-bound- enhanced matheuristic that converges to provably optimal solutions. In a real-world case study for Flixbus, one of Europe’s leading coach companies, the authors demonstrate the benefits of considering driver exchanges en route.
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