  In this thesis we present a new algorithm for the Vehicle Routing Problem
called the Enhanced Bees Algorithm. It is adapted from a fairly recent
algorithm, the Bees Algorithm, which was developed for continuous optimisation
problems. We show that the results obtained by the Enhanced Bees Algorithm are
competitive with the best meta-heuristics available for the Vehicle Routing
Problem (within 0.5% of the optimal solution for common benchmark problems). We
show that the algorithm has good runtime performance, producing results within
2% of the optimal solution within 60 seconds, making it suitable for use within
real world dispatch scenarios.
