Vehicle costs and the COST metricCopy link
Routing24 has no "balance routes" or "minimize vehicles" switch. The optimizer minimizes total cost, and the cost fields on each vehicle define what that cost is in your operation. The base cost fields are available on every plan; Overtime cost per hour, Ride overtime cost per hour and Cost per load-km / load-mile are Pro features, usable on the free tier within the free paid-feature optimizations.
This tutorial plan prices a cargo bike and a van differently for the same twelve orders:
The cost fieldsCopy link
Each vehicle carries its own prices, in the editor's Cost group:
| Field | Charged | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed cost | Once, if the vehicle is used at all | Cost of putting a van and driver on the road; makes the optimizer prefer fewer vehicles |
| Cost per km / mile | Per distance driven | Fuel, wear, per-km leasing |
| Cost per hour | Per hour on route: driving, service, waiting | Wages; makes shorter route durations reduce cost |
| Cost per stop | Per stop served; depot and reload visits are free, and a pickup with its linked delivery counts as two stops | Handling or drop fee per delivery; steers orders toward vehicles with cheaper handling |
| Overtime cost per hour (PRO) | Per hour past Max duration, up to Max overtime | Overtime pay; long routes are chosen only when the saving exceeds the overtime charge |
| Ride overtime cost per hour (PRO) | Per hour a linked (pickup & delivery) order's ride time runs past its Max time in vehicle, up to its Max ride overtime. A driver break taken between the pickup and the delivery counts as ride time and is charged the same way | Cold-chain surcharge; a pair rides late only when the saving exceeds the ride overtime charge |
| Cost per load-km / load-mile (PRO) | Per unit of load carried per km or mile: every leg charges the load on board times the leg length | Load-dependent fuel or refrigeration burn; heavy cargo rides shorter paths and is dropped early |
An empty cost field means 0. When no vehicle in the plan carries a cost per km/mile, per hour, or per load-km/mile, the optimizer minimizes plain travel distance; a plan whose every cost is an explicit 0 is treated the same way. A 0 next to priced vehicles is honored: the tutorial's bike charges 0 per km while the van charges 1, so the same kilometre is free on the bike and priced on the van. Different vehicles can carry different prices, so a bike courier and a truck are costed independently for the same orders.
How the trade-off plays outCopy link
The optimizer weighs these numbers against each other:
- High fixed cost packs work onto fewer vehicles, even at the price of longer routes.
- High distance cost shortens total mileage, even if it uses an extra van.
- High hourly cost penalizes waiting time and slow sequences, and matters most with tight time windows.
A workable starting point is a realistic fixed cost (what a vehicle-day costs you) and a rough per-km cost. Ratios matter more than absolute values: a fixed cost of 50 with distance cost 1 behaves the same as 5000 with 100.
The tutorial plan puts numbers on this. The cargo bike costs 5 fixed and 8 per hour, nothing per km; the van costs 80 fixed, 1 per km and 25 per hour. The bike is the cheapest way to serve the orders it can carry, so the optimizer sends it out with its 6 units and the van covers the rest. Now set the bike's Fixed cost to 100 and re-optimize: the van absorbs every order, the bike stays parked, and an unused vehicle is not charged its fixed cost. Compare the header COST before and after.
Cost per load-km / load-mileCopy link
The load-distance rate prices the carrying itself. Every leg charges the load on board times the leg's length. This tutorial plan sends one van to two 8-unit pallet drops and six 1-unit parcel stops with a Cost per load-km of 2:
With the rate set, the van serves both pallets in the first half of the route even though that tour is a few kilometres longer than the shortest loop. The 16 pallet units leave the van early instead of riding around the city, so fewer load-kilometres accumulate and the COST comes out lower. Clear Cost per load-km on the van and re-optimize. The route reverts to the shortest loop and the pallets ride deep into it. The rate models load-dependent fuel or energy burn and refrigerated running cost.
The COST metricCopy link
After a solve, the header's COST is the sum of every used vehicle's charges under these prices, and each route card's context can be judged the same way. Re-run after a change and compare COST values to see which plan is cheaper, in the currency you defined.
Unassigned orders are not priced: the solver always prefers serving an order over dropping it, regardless of cost, and reports what it could not serve in the Unassigned panel.
Next stepCopy link
Costs decide which vehicle takes which orders; tags decide which vehicle may. See Tags: vehicle-order compatibility.