Abstract
Some compact expressions are defined to evaluate the average distance traveled in vehicle routing problems in circular and elliptic zones. These formulas have been carried out empirically from the results obtained by the application to a set of problems of heuristic algorithms (Clarke and Wright, Fisher and Jaikumar, and Gillet and Miller) and Daganzo's method based on continuous approximations of the demand spatial distribution. The problems are solved and designed automatically by a computer. Vehicle capacity has been the only constraint considered in the tour design. If N is the number of points and C is the vehicle capacity, it has been shown that the Clarke and Wright algorithm provides the best solutions especially when N < 50 or N/C < 14. However, solutions with Daganzo's method are not adequate when N/C ≤ 3.
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