This is our first post in a new series highlighting best practices when developing and using vehicle route optimisation algorithms. The following infographic considers the treatment of rush hours and more generally, time-dependent travel times, in vehicle routing algorithms. Optimisers should model rush hours inside the algorithm, so ETAs are accurate and routes are designed so long journeys are done outside rush hours. Some commercial route optimisers don’t model rush hours or they only apply rush hours after deciding the stop sequence, so long journeys still happen during rush hours. ODL Live uses rush hours in every step of the algorithm, predicting travel time based on a variety of factors and building routes structured around rush hours.