Minimal load constrained vehicle routing problems

In this paper, the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem is extended to the case where each vehicle is restricted to an additional minimal starting or returning load constraint. We refer to this extension as the Minimal Load Constrained Vehicle Routing Problem. We present integer programming formulations for single and multidepot cases. An illustrative example is also provided to show how a decision maker can use the proposed formulation as an aid in distribution plannin