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A retail last-mile network blends an in-house fleet with subcontracted vans, delivers to stores before opening hours as well as to end customers, and routes some access-restricted deliveries (lockers, secure sites) only through drivers who hold the right key.

What makes this vertical distinctive

  • Key-holder-only access windows — a locker or secure site opens early only to drivers who hold the key, with a narrower standard window for everyone else.
  • Blended subcontractor/in-house costs — subcontractors are paid a flat fee plus a lower per-kilometre rate, in-house drivers a straight per-kilometre rate — one cost model, two structures.
  • Pre-opening store drops — store deliveries land in an early window before the shop opens, for chains that need it.
  • Trusted-keychain deliveries — a set of key-gated stops is kept to a single driver for the day.

Combined example

Early access for key holders

order-locker-site carries two authorizedTimeWindows: an early one (06:00-20:00) tagged resourceTags: ["key-holder"], and a narrower standard one (09:00-17:00) with no tag. Only driver-key-holder can use the early window; every other resource is restricted to the untagged one. See Restricting a window to specific resources.

Blended subcontractor/in-house costs

driver-key-holder.cost.km.costCoeff: 1.2 charges a straight per-kilometre rate. van-subcontractor-a.cost instead combines a lower km.costCoeff: 0.6 with a flat using: 80 charged once if the van is used at all — the two resources are priced on different structures, but both roll up into the same minimizeCosts objective for a single, comparable plan. See The cost object.

Pre-opening store drops

order-store-1.authorizedTimeWindows is a single hard window (05:00-07:00), ahead of the store’s opening hours — an ordinary authorizedTimeWindows use, no different in kind from Multiple time windows per stop, just with one window instead of several.

Trusted-keychain deliveries

order-keychain-0 carries the tag keychain:trusted-set-1; a globalConstraints entry of type maxCumulatedCost caps the number of distinct driver-tagged resources allowed on that tag at 1 across the whole fleet, so whichever driver takes the first keychain stop is the only one who can take the rest of the set. See Constraints catalog.

See also