How this calculation works
A travel-time total alone does not tell a driver when a route finishes. Reaching a stop before its receiving window creates waiting; reaching it after the last permitted start creates lateness. This timeline keeps those quantities separate for every stop.
Arrival = previous departure + travel; service start = max(arrival, earliest); lateness = max(0, service start − latest)A worked example
Starting at minute zero, the example reaches A after ten minutes, waits until minute twenty, then spends ten minutes serving A. It reaches B at minute forty-five and departs at fifty. The twenty-minute B-to-depot leg makes the return time seventy minutes. Moving A’s latest start earlier can create lateness without changing the physical travel matrix. That is a window conflict rather than extra driving distance.
Good to know
At most twenty stops and a supplied matrix; no geocoding, live traffic, route optimum, vehicle capacity, driver-break or dispatch integration. Service windows and matrix cells are checked for shape and numeric bounds. The page cannot verify whether your supplied travel estimates or receiving hours are operationally accurate.
Reference: Google OR-Tools — time-window modeling concepts (opens in a new tab) ↗
What this model answers
A travel-time total alone does not tell a driver when a route finishes. Reaching a stop before its receiving window creates waiting; reaching it after the last permitted start creates lateness. This timeline keeps those quantities separate for every stop.
The travel matrix is entered information, not a live map query. A row represents travel from its location and a column represents travel to its location. Different outward and return times are allowed, so the matrix does not have to be symmetric.
The Warehouse pick and pack capacity calculator budgets labor before dispatch. Picking work and travel windows are different bottlenecks: available warehouse capacity does not establish that a delivery route meets every customer window.
Measure the right inputs
List depot as matrix location zero, followed by stops in the exact order in which they appear in the stop table. Use minutes from a shared origin for all windows and the depot departure. For an overnight plan, continue beyond 1440 minutes rather than resetting the clock.
Latest time constrains when service starts, not when it ends. Service duration is included before traveling onward. If a customer requires completion by a deadline, convert that rule to an appropriate latest-start time before entering it.
Read the result in context
Listed order preserves your sequence. Deadline order simply visits smaller latest-start times first; it is a heuristic comparison, not a route optimizer. A closer stop with a later deadline may still make a better route than that simple rule.
Waiting and lateness are summed but have different meanings. A route can have both because it waits at an early-window customer and later misses a tight deadline elsewhere. The final time includes the last trip back to the depot, even though no depot row is repeated in the stop table.
Work through the numbers
Starting at minute zero, the example reaches A after ten minutes, waits until minute twenty, then spends ten minutes serving A. It reaches B at minute forty-five and departs at fifty.
The twenty-minute B-to-depot leg makes the return time seventy minutes. Moving A’s latest start earlier can create lateness without changing the physical travel matrix. That is a window conflict rather than extra driving distance.
Where the model stops
At most twenty stops and a supplied matrix; no geocoding, live traffic, route optimum, vehicle capacity, driver-break or dispatch integration.
Service windows and matrix cells are checked for shape and numeric bounds. The page cannot verify whether your supplied travel estimates or receiving hours are operationally accurate.
A few questions, answered
Does changing visit order reorder my matrix?
No. Matrix indices remain tied to the original listed stops; only the visiting sequence changes.
Are these clock times?
No. They are minutes from one planning origin. Convert your schedule consistently before entry.