Route Quality Constraints

Constraints that influence the shape, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of the generated routes. These settings help fine-tune the solver's output to match operational preferences, such as minimizing total distance or balancing work across the fleet.

Related Concepts

• Wait Time (Slack): Excessive slack (idle time) often indicates suboptimal route (quality).
• Vehicle Efficiency: Strategies to ensure vehicles are utilized effectively (e.g., minimum fill rates).
• Time Windows: Narrow time windows can force less compact routes; understanding this trade-off is key to quality.

📄️ Route compactness

In the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP), optimizing routes involves more than just vehicle capacity and customer demand. Route compactness and clusterization are two key concepts used to manage and optimize routes based on spatial location.

📄️ Path Equalizer

In complex vehicle routing scenarios, it's common for optimization algorithms, focused solely on minimizing total cost, to produce unbalanced routes. For example, one vehicle might be assigned a long, 8-hour route while another gets a short, 3-hour route. This can lead to issues with driver fairness, overtime costs, and inconsistent vehicle utilization.

📄️ CVRPTW vs. PDP Scheduling Modes

The Stateless Optimization API is designed to solve two primary classes of Vehicle Routing Problems (VRP) by offering two distinct scheduling modes: prebook_cvrptw and prebook (PDP). Each mode is tailored for different operational workflows, and choosing the correct one is crucial for achieving an efficient and accurate optimization result.

📄️ Trip cost

In the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP), the concept of "trip cost" is used to model the cost or penalty associated with a vehicle making a trip to serve a specific order. This cost can represent various factors, such as the distance traveled, the time spent, or other operational expenses. By assigning a trip cost to each order, the optimization algorithm can prioritize routes that minimize these costs, leading to more efficient and cost-effective solutions.

📄️ Distance Ratio Constraint

Optimizing route directness is crucial for balancing operational costs and carrier agreements. The distance ratio constraint allows planners to control how much a route can deviate from the most direct path, ensuring efficiency and cost predictability.