Anil İnanliBaşak ÜnsalD. T. Eliiyi2025-10-062015035353200353-53201848-406910.7307/ptt.v27i6.1645https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84952920169&doi=10.7307%2Fptt.v27i6.1645&partnerID=40&md5=7459a0de4e4431bbdc450164c1a217b3https://gcris.yasar.edu.tr/handle/123456789/9951This study considers the distribution network of a well known perishable food manufacturer and its franchises in Turkey. As the countrywide number of stores is increasing fast the company is facing problems due to its central distribution of products from a single factory. The objective is to decrease the cost of transportation while maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction. Hence the focus is on the vehicle routing problem (VRP) of this large franchise chain within each city. The problem is defined as a rich VRP with heterogeneous fleet site-dependent and compartmentalized vehicles and soft/hard time windows. This NP-hard problem is modelled and tried with real data on a commercial solver. A basic heuristic procedure which can be used easily by the decision makers is also employed for obtaining quick and high-quality solutions for large instances. © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.EnglishCompartmentalized Vehicles, Heterogeneous Fleet, Rich Vehicle Routing Problem, Soft And Hard Time Windows, Optimization, Transportation System, Turkeyoptimization, transportation system, TurkeyArticle