Sanitation Routing Question

[JL2020]

I am currently trying to use Network Analyst to determine the most efficient routes for trash pickup for a local municipality.

Using the "New Vehicle Routing Problem" Tool, we have 2 depots set (the garage where the trucks start out and park at the end of the day and the Landfill where they offload 2 to 3 times a shift), 5 Trucks for Monday (we will run the Analysis for each day of the week, but are starting with Monday) and about 12,808 "Orders" (Addresses for Pickup).

Seems that this tool is intended for a delivery-type situation: where there is one starting and ending location (Sanitation Department) and the addition of the second Depot location (Landfill) is throwing it off. I've tried adding Route Renewals at the Landfill location, but that didn't work.  Any idea where I should incorporate the Landfill in the setup?

Also interested in dividing the 12,808 addresses into Zones and possibly running the analysis that way. If anyone has any suggestions on the most even way to do that across a city, I'm interesting in hearing about that as well.

Thank you in advance!

[JoeBorgione]

You are describing what is known as the 'Chinese Postman Problem".  Unless something radically has changed, Network Analyst doesn't support that solution.

[JL2020]

Thank you for your response! It's much appreciated.

Do you know of any native ArcGIS Tools that would be able to solve my problem?

[UnderstandFast]

This is exactly what RouteSmart does. It's built on top of Esri.

I am not affiliated with RouteSmart, but I used to work for an organization where we used this tool for a similar purpose: Street Sweeping. Trucks leave the depot, sweep (created a point for each address along the way), empty at specific locations, continue sweeping, and return to depot.

I believe the City of Sacramento uses RouteSmart for solid waste routing, at least for illegal dumping.

[JL2020]

Thank you for your recommendation.

Unfortunately, we don't have a budget for any third party services. I'll keep RouteSmart in mind if that changes.

[MBriggs]

Hey JL2020,  Did you find any solution to this issue?  We are looking into routing/navigation for Snow Plowing . Same issue and do not have the budget for RouteSmart.  Let me know if you did.  Thanks...

[RachaelMurtaugh]

I worked with the VRP and some overrides and got it to work, but ultimately, I did something completely different. I went to the solid waste crews with maps of my stops and days. They drew out how they saw it working best (they know the streets, traffic, etc.). We then used the Tracker in Field Maps and I use the Route solver to solve the route using the tracking points. This route was then shared online for Navigator. Two birds with this. 1. An efficient route was made. 2. The consumer of the product has agency in their day.