Glossary
Vehicle routing problem (VRP)
The vehicle routing problem is the mathematical problem of finding the best set of routes for a fleet of vehicles to serve a set of stops from one or more depots.
Last updated By Porch Routes
Add time windows and you have the VRPTW; add capacity and it is the CVRP; add both and it is the CVRPTW, which is what a delivery business actually faces. All are computationally hard, so practical solvers build a good plan quickly and then improve it rather than search every possibility.
In Porch Routes the solver is a capacitated VRP with time windows over the whole fleet: it inserts each stop where it costs least, then improves the routes with local search, with temperature as a hard constraint and locked stops fixed in place. It is deterministic — no randomness, no clock reads — so the same day always plans the same way.
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