Network Analyst not honoring time window ends

Question

Is there a setting in Network Analyst that can force a vehicle routing problem to consider the service time at each location and make sure that the delivery is completed within the time window? I have three locations in my current solution that arrive within the time window specified, but the delivery time goes longer than the site's delivery window. Example:

Location A has a delivery window of 8 am to 12 pm

The solution has a truck scheduled to arrive at 11:55 am.

The unload time is 20 minutes, so the delivery team will actually be there until 12:15 pm, which violates the delivery window.

I need my crews to be finished with their delivery before the time window closes. Is there a way to tell Network Analyst that?

HeatherMoe · Accepted Answer

Hello Amy,

The time windows within the VRP solver (including breaks) indicated within which times the vehicle needs to arrive at the location (or start the break).  It does not indicate when it needs to be finished with it.  If you have to be completely finished with an order within your time window the best way to model this is to take what the time windows are for you and subtract the service time from the ending and use this shorted time window for the VRP solver, therefore ensuring that the order will be completed by the time window that you have as a business constraint.

So to walk through the example you gave.  If you have a time window of 8 am to noon in which the order needs to be completely serviced and a 20 minute service time.  You would subtract 20 minutes from noon giving you 11:40 am.  You would then put into the VRP solver a time window of 8 am to 11:40 am for this order.

Let me know if you have more questions on this.

Heather