The seventh meeting of the EURO Working Group on Vehicle Routing and Logistics optimization  is taking place at Fundación Cajasol, Calle Chicarreros, 1, 41004, Seville (Spain), affiliated center of Pablo de Olavide University in Seville from 3 to 5 June 2019.

The VeRoLog conference is a meeting bringing together the large community of researchers and practitioners interested in vehicle routing optimization and its relationship with logistics.

The conference is open to high quality methodological contributions, relevant real-world applications, and case studies from industry and the service sector.

We are pleased to announce two confirmed Special Issues in high-impact journals:

Journal: Networks (IF: 1.121, Q3)
Issue Name: Special Issue on Optimization in Vehicle Routing and Logistics
Guest editors: Daniele Vigo, Ana D. López-Sánchez, Jesús Sánchez-Oro
Call for papers: Networks CfP

Journal: Journal of Heuristics (IF: 1.129, Q3)
Issue Name: Special Issue on Recent Innovations in Vehicle Routing Problem and Logistic Optimization
Guest editors: Ana D. López-Sánchez, Alfredo G. Hernández-Díaz, Julián Molina
Call for papers: Journal of Heuristics CfP

• January 31, 2019: abstract submission deadline (up to 250 words)

• February 10, 2019: extended submission deadline (up to 250 words)

• February 28, 2019: notification of acceptance

• April 10, 2019: closing early bird registration

• April 30, 2019: closing of registration

• June 3-5, 2019: conference

•  PhD Student: 275€ (early) - 375€ (late)

• Regular: 450€ (early) - 550€ (late)

• Accompanying person: 200€

   

The VeRoLog Solver Challenge 2019 revolves around an exciting routing problem faced by ORTEC which received little attention in the literature so far. This problem combines distribution and subsequent installation of equipment, such as vending machines. The organization provides a comprehensive description of the problem, instances and some resources such as a solution validator on the challenge website https://verolog2019.ortec.com/. The challenge consists of two parts. Participants may compete – and win money prizes – in one or in both parts of the challenge.

During the first part of the challenge, solutions submitted for a set of public instances are ranked weekly. For each instance, the team that leads on that instance at the end of the week earns money. Additional prizes are awarded per instance to the team with the all-time best solution for that instance. Solutions submitted during the first part can be obtained by any means available.

Selected participants will have the possibility to present during the upcoming VeRoLog conference in Seville and to publish in a special issue of the journal Networks. The winning team receives €2019, the second best €500 and the third €250. The organization and the prizes are provided by ORTEC and will be awarded during the VeRoLog conference.

The second part of the challenge is restricted to the teams that submit implementations either in the form of a Windows executable or a Python script (see https://verolog2019.ortec.com/ for specifications) and that are selected by the organization based on their solution quality. In this part, the organization applies the selected implementations on a set of not previously disclosed instances. IBM, Gurobi and FICO supply licenses of their solvers (CPLEX, Gurobi and Xpress, respectively) which ORTEC may use during the second part. This means that the algorithms submitted may call on these solvers.

• VeRoLog 2017 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 10-12 July 2017
• VeRoLog 2016 in Nantes, France, 6-8 June 2016
• VeRoLog 2015 in Vienna, Austria, 8-10 June 2015
• VeRoLog 2014 in Oslo, Norway, 22-25 June 2014
• VeRoLog 2013 in Southampton, United Kingdom, 7-10 July 2013
• VeRoLog 2012 in Bologna, Italy, 18-20 June 2012

 verolog2019@gmail.com