About Calculation Variables

The amount of time in minutes between run events when no passengers are on board is known as deadhead time (dht). The deadhead time is undesirable because there is no revenue being generated if there are no clients paying for a trip.

The Cost Formula switch allows a site to select one of four formulas that determines how the deadhead cost is calculated for a solution. Each of these formulas use the deadhead score (dhs) for the current solution (aka, the “before” score) and subtracts it from the new solution (aka, the “after” score), which is then multiplied with the Deadhead Costing weight (CWDH) to determine the overall score of a trip insertion:

Trip Cost = (dhsAfter - dhsBefore) x CWDH

To understand how the cost of deadhead for a trip is calculated, one must also understand the variables used to perform the calculation. There are four variables used when calculating the cost of deadhead:
  • Deadhead Time
  • Slack

  • Deadhead Threshold Time Costing Variable

  • Minimize Deadhead Costing Weight