Workflow Narrative

Fleet Routing and Dispatch Optimization

Who It Is For

Logistics dispatch teams planning daily vehicle assignments.
Municipal waste and field-maintenance operations with constrained fleet capacity/time.
Courier and distribution operations requiring transparent route exceptions.

Primary User

Logistics operations leaders, municipal service planners, and fleet-dispatch platform teams.

What It Does

Optimizes vehicle dispatch plans across depots and stops for logistics and field operations.
Builds feasible routes under capacity and shift-time constraints.
Produces assignment, KPI, and exception outputs for operations review.
Supports objective mode selection (`minimize_distance`, `minimize_time`, `minimize_cost`, `balanced`).

How It Works

Parses depot and stop layers plus fleet specifications from `vehicles_csv`.
Harmonizes depot/stop CRS to the network CRS when EPSG metadata is available and validates projected CRS for distance/time calculations.
Filters infeasible stops where demand exceeds max vehicle capacity.
Applies objective-aware greedy nearest-feasible stop construction for initial route assignment (`distance`, `time`, `cost`, `balanced`).
Applies optional edge restrictions from CSV (`from_x,from_y,to_x,to_y,closed,penalty_factor`) as closures or impedance penalties.
Runs local 2-opt sequence refinement for incremental route improvement.
Computes per-route and fleet KPIs and emits exceptions with reason codes.

Inputs

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`network`	LineVector path	Required	Street/network layer used by routing workflow
`depots`	PointVector path	Required	Depot or start/end locations for vehicles
`stops`	PointVector path	Required	Stops/tasks to assign to routes
`vehicles_csv`	path	Required	Fleet specs (vehicle_id, capacity, available_time_minutes, cost_per_minute, cost_per_km, depot_id)
`objective`	string	Optional	Objective mode: `minimize_distance`, `minimize_time`, `minimize_cost`, `balanced`
`restrictions`	path	Optional	Optional restrictions CSV (`from_x,from_y,to_x,to_y[,closed][,penalty_factor]`) used for edge closures or impedance penalties
`routes_output`	vector path	Required	Output route vector path
`assignment_csv_output`	path	Required	Output stop-to-route assignment CSV
`route_kpis_csv_output`	path	Required	Output per-route/fleet KPI CSV
`exceptions_csv_output`	path	Required	Output infeasible stop diagnostics CSV

Outputs

Output	Type	Contents
`routes_output`	Vector	Route geometries and route-level summaries by vehicle
`assignment_csv_output`	CSV	stop_id, route_id, vehicle_id, sequence_order, arrival/departure times
`route_kpis_csv_output`	CSV	Per-route metrics and fleet roll-up summary
`exceptions_csv_output`	CSV	stop_id with reason code (`demand_exceeds_max_vehicle_capacity`, `no_feasible_route`)

Python Example

env = WbEnvironment(license_tier="pro")

result = env.run_tool("fleet_routing_and_dispatch_optimizer",
    network="city_network.gpkg",
    depots="depots.gpkg",
    stops="daily_stops.gpkg",
    vehicles_csv="fleet_specs.csv",
    objective="minimize_cost",
    routes_output="output/routes.gpkg",
    assignment_csv_output="output/assignments.csv",
    route_kpis_csv_output="output/route_kpis.csv",
    exceptions_csv_output="output/exceptions.csv",
)

print(result)

License Notice

Use of this function requires a license for Whitebox Workflows Professional (WbW-Pro). Please visit www.whiteboxgeo.com to purchase a license.

Project Links

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