1. TransCAD
Vehicle Routing
2018/11/29

2. Introduction
The starting points for each route ( such as the warehouse) are known as depots, and the points to be visited are known as stops. A vehicle route starts at a depot, visits one or more stops, and may or may not return to the depot.
The goal of the procedure is to obtain a set of routes that minimizes the total time or distance traveled by the entire fleet of vehicles. The travel times or distances are stored in the vehicle routing matrix.
2018/11/29

3. Factors
There are many factors that can make a vehicle routing problem more complex. The list below shows some common situations that are easily handled by TransCAD:
There are more than one warehouse location, and stores can be serviced by trucks from any one of these warehouses. This kind of a problem is known as a multiple-depot problem.
2018/11/29

4. Factors
There are time restrictions on when deliveries can be make to some or all of the stores. This type of restriction is known as a time window.
There are time restrictions at the warehouse. This type of restriction is also known as a time window.
Each stop requires a certain amount of time to service. In most cases, each stop has a fixed service time that is independent of demand.
2018/11/29

5. Factors
There is a time restriction on total route length, or route duration. For example, when delivering take-out food, it may be desirable that the full route length is not more than an hour.
There are backhaul stops. For example, vehicles may need to pick up empty containers at the end of their delivery trip. Backhaul stops can only be visited after all delivery stops are visited in a route.
2018/11/29

6. Factors
A vehicle route may contain mixed pickup and delivery stops, where the pickups and deliveries do not need to correspond to each other. A stop may require either a pickup, a delivery, or both services.
A route does not need to end at the depot. In other words, the route does not contain the return trip from the last stop to the depot. This is often referred as an open-ended route instead of a closed tour. For example, a driver may want to drive home directly from the last stop of the day instead of returning to the depot. Another example is when the route duration constraint is effective only to the point of the last stop, such as in fresh goods delivery services.
2018/11/29

7. Problem Examples
Determining assignments and routes for bridge inspectors
Managing a messenger or pizza-delivery service
Scheduling and routing sales personnel to potential customer sites
Delivering fuel oil to businesses or households, or gasoline to filling stations
Collecting solid waste from dump sites located at office or industrial complexes
2018/11/29

8. Problem Examples
The TransCAD vehicle routing procedures use general-purpose methods that are appropriate for a fairly broad class of problems. There are some variations of the vehicle routing problem not handled directly within the TransCAD interface.
Mixed products – Several different products must be delivered in the same vehicle, but some vehicles have restrictions on the goods that can be carried
Partially pre-ordered routes – Certain stops must be visited in an exact order
Other constraints – There are work rules or regulations that impose other types of constraints on the routes to be developed
2018/11/29

9. Vehicle Routing Procedure
There are six steps to solving a vehicle routing problem:
Preparing the depot and stop data
Use TransCAD to create geographic files that show the location of each depot and stop, along with information on the demand and other characteristics of each one. This step must be done before any of the others.
Creating the vehicle routing matrix
Create either a network-based or a straight line-based matrix file that contains the distance and travel time between each depot and stop.
2018/11/29

10. Creating the vehicle table
Create a vehicle table that contains the required vehicle information.
Solving the vehicle routing problem
Run the routing procedure to develop efficient vehicle routes, summary reports, and itineraries. You may wish to do this several times with various settings and then compare the results of the different scenarios.
Displaying the vehicle routes
If you solved the routing problem with a network-based routing matrix, create a route system that lets you see the routes on a map.
Editing the vehicle routes
Once you have created a route, you can use the Vehicle Route Editing Toolbox to manually edit the routes.
2018/11/29

11. Depot Layer Fields The depot layer must have the following fields:
Type
Contents ID
Integer
A number that uniquely identifies the depot
Name
String or integer
A name or number that is used to identify a depot in the route reports
Open Time
The earliest time, in military format (e.g. 17– for 5:00pm), that vehicles can be dispatched from the depot
Close Time
integer
The latest time, in military format, that vehicles can return to the depot
2018/11/29

12. If you are using a network-based vehicle routing matrix you must also include the following field in the stop layer:
Field
Type
Contents
Node ID
Integer
The ID of the network node nearest to the depot; you can choose Edit-Fill and use the Tag option to automatically tag each depot with the ID of the nearest node
2018/11/29

13. Stop Layer Fields The stop layer must have the following fields: Field
Type
Contents ID
Integer
A number that uniquely identifies the depot
Name
String or integer
A name or number that is used to identify a depot in the route reports
Open Time
The earliest time, in military format (e.g. 17– for 5:00pm), that vehicles can be dispatched from the depot
Close Time
integer
The latest time, in military format, that vehicles can return to the depot
Delivery Demand
Numeric
The delivery demand at a stop (not required for Pickup mode)
Pickup Demand
numeric
The pickup demand at a stop ( not required for Delivery mode)
2018/11/29

14. If you are using a network-based vehicle routing matrix you must also include the following field in the stop layer:
Field
Type
Contents
Node ID
Integer
The ID of the network node nearest to the depot; you can choose Edit-Fill and use the Tag option to automatically tag each depot with the ID of the nearest node
2018/11/29

15. Depending upon the operational characteristics you require for routing, the following additional fields may also be necessary:
Field
Type
Contents
Fixed Time
numeric
The minimum time required to service a stop (in minutes)
Unit Time
The service time required for each unit of demand (in minutes)
Depot Assigned
integer
The ID of the specific depot which services a stop; TransCAD will use the assigned depot when present, and will choose a depot when this value is blank
2018/11/29

16. Time Windows
In both the depot and the stop layers, the Open Time and Close Time fields use military format, so 8:30AM should be written as 830, while 6:30PM should be written as Times beyond midnight are written as numbers over 2400; for example, 12:30AM should be written as 2430.
If you do not need time window restrictions, you can simply set the open time to 0 and the close time to a large number (e.g., >2400).
2018/11/29

17. Depot Assignments
If you are routing from multiple depots, you can either let the vehicle routing procedures assign each stop to a depot, or you can pre-assign any number of stops to specific depots. To pre-assign stops to depots, the stop layer must have a field containing the ID numbers of the depots to which each stop is assigned. Any stop that is not assigned in advance will be assigned to the nearest depot by the vehicle routing procedure. If a depot has excessive demand over its total vehicle capacity, some stops may be assigned to the second nearest depot.
2018/11/29

18. To Set Up Depots and Stops for Vehicle Routing
2018/11/29

19. 2018/11/29

20. Creating the Vehicle Routing Matrix
The vehicle routing matrix is a matrix file that contains the distance and travel time between each depot and stop and between every pair of stops. The vehicle routing matrix file is a primary input to the vehicle routing procedure. You can create a routing matrix from within the Vehicle Routing with Time Windows dialog box.
You can choose to compute distances and travel times in two different ways:
Use a line layer and network
Use straight-line connections between points
2018/11/29

21. Using a Network to Create the Vehicle Routing Matrix
The network method is more accurate and lets you create a route system with the routing results. When you use a network to create a routing matrix, TransCAD computes the time and distance between each pair of stops, and between each depot and stop, by computing the shortest path between them.
Since the depots and stops may not be directly on the network, the routing matrix procedure performs the actual computation between the nodes nearest to each depot and stop.
2018/11/29

22. Using a Network to Create the Vehicle Routing Matrix
To use this method, you must:
Have a network that contains both distance and travel time information for each segment
Tag each stop and depot with the ID of the nearest node
The network file must contain travel time in minutes. To tag stops and depots with the ID of the nearest network node, use the Edit-Fill command with the Tag option.
2018/11/29

23. Using Straight-Line Connections to Create the Vehicle Routing Matrix
The straight-line method is a convenient approximation when you do not have a line layer.
When you use straight-line connections to create the routing matrix, TransCAD computes the distances between points based on the straight-line distance plus a circuity factor of 1.3. If you prefer to use a circuity factor other than 1.3, use the Matrix-Fill command on the completed routing matrix to scale the values by any desired factor.
2018/11/29

24. Using Straight-Line Connections to Create the Vehicle Routing Matrix
This method does not require the preparation of a network, nor does it require depots and stops to be tagged with the ID of the nearest network node.
However, the distances and times that are estimated using this method are less accurate. In addition, you cannot display routes created from a straight line-based routing matrix without a line layer.
2018/11/29

25. To Create a Vehicle Routing Matrix
2018/11/29

26. 2018/11/29

27. 2018/11/29

28. Make sure the Boston.net is active.
An Example
Make sure the Boston.net is active.
2018/11/29

29. 2018/11/29

30. 2018/11/29

31. 2018/11/29

32. Creating the Vehicle Table
To solve a vehicle routing problem with time windows, you will also need to prepare a vehicle table. This table contains specific about the fleet of vehicles available at a depot.
Field
Type
Contents
Depot ID
integer
The node ID of the depot for each vehicle type
Vehicle type code, which must be unique within each depot
Capacity
real
The capacity of a vehicle, which must match in units the demand at the stops
Number of Vehicles
The number of vehicles at the depot
Cost
The purchase/operating/rental cost of each vehicle type
2018/11/29

33. To Create a Vehicle Table
Prepare the depot and stop data first.
2018/11/29

34. To Solve the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows
VRPTW.WRK
2018/11/29

35. 2018/11/29

36. Displaying Vehicle Routes
To Create a route system showing the vehicle routes, you must provide the following information:
The route table that was produced by the vehicle routing procedure
The line layer, network, and settings that were used to create the routing matrix
You can also display routes with a point layer, by creating desire lines that give a straight line representation of the routes.
2018/11/29

37. To Create a Route System for Vehicle Routes
2018/11/29

38. 2018/11/29

39. 2018/11/29

40. Editing Vehicle Routes
Once you have created vehicle routes, you can use the Vehicle Route Editing toolbox to modify one or more routes. In addition, you can add any unassigned stops to routes.
Sometimes there will be stops that were not assigned to any route in the initial solution, or that are removed from routes by you. There stops are referred to as orphans.
2018/11/29

41. To Open the Vehicle Route Editing Toolbox
To use the Vehicle Route Editing toolbox, you must have the following files open:
A map that contains the depots, stops, and the route system of the vehicle routes
The vehicle routing matrix used to create the routes
2018/11/29

42. To Open the Vehicle Route Editing Toolbox
2018/11/29

43. 2018/11/29

44. Displaying Routes with a Point Layer(Optional)
Normally you need a line layer to display routes. However, TransCAD allows you to create a line layer from a point layer, provided that your stops and depot(s) are on the same point layer.
Before creating the vehicle routing matrix, you should do the following steps:
Create a distance matrix: this matrix must have all stops and depot(s) you needed in both its rows and columns.
Create a desire line layer: the desire line layer is for displaying routes later.
Prepare additional input data: you will need to add a time field in the new desire lines layer, tag the Node ID field in your point layer, and create a network from the desire line layer.
2018/11/29

45. To Create a Distance Matrix
2018/11/29

46. To Create a Desire Lines Layer
2018/11/29

47. To Prepare Additional Input Data
2018/11/29

48. To Prepare Additional Input Data
2018/11/29

49. To Prepare Additional Input Data
2018/11/29