H.BLUE Route Optimisation

The standard. Every collection round H.BLUE plans is the shortest, the cleanest, and the cheapest possible — calculated before the truck moves. No human hours wasted on map work. No empty miles. No detours. The algorithm is not a feature — it is the floor.

§1 · The Standard

Every dPRN logged into the system has a postcode. Every bin has a postcode. Every beach has a postcode. Every truck has a depot postcode. H.BLUE consumes all four feeds and computes the optimal pick-up sequence in real time. Operator hits one button: Plan today's round. Done.

"Optimised routes should be standard."
This was the operator brief from the beginning. MD-462 makes it doctrine.

§2 · The Three Pillars

📍

SHORTEST

Travelling-salesman solver run against today's bin list. Every junction, every postcode, every traffic delta from open routing data — all factored. Output is the route that hits the most bins per mile.

⚖️

CLEANEST

Truck capacity respected. No over-loaded vehicles. Heavy bins (CONTAMINATED · MIXED) routed to the depot last so they don't sit in the cab all day. Light bins (PET · LDPE film) batched first.

💷

CHEAPEST

Fuel cost / driver hours / per-bin servicing fee — H.BLUE prices every route option and picks the lowest total cost. The number lands in the operator brief next to the map.

§3 · The Five-Step Flow

TriggerOperator opens /h-blue-extract or schedules a daily 06:00 cron. H.BLUE pulls today's bins-needing-collection from deployed_bins WHERE current_fill_level >= threshold OR last_collection_date < cutoff.

ClusterBins are clustered by postcode region (first 3 chars). Each cluster is a candidate sub-round. Two trucks → two clusters. Three trucks → three clusters.

SolveFor each cluster, H.BLUE runs a nearest-neighbour TSP heuristic seeded with current depot location. Two-opt swap pass to escape local minima. Output: ordered bin list per truck.

BriefEach driver gets a route card: bin sequence, total miles, ETA per stop, expected total kg, capacity warning if approaching truck limit. Card is printable + sent as SMS link.

ReconcileEnd of day: actual collected kg vs predicted. Variance > 15% logs an alert. The model retrains on the variance data so tomorrow's plan gets better. Kaizen loop.

§4 · Inputs H.BLUE Reads

Source	Field	Used For
deployed_bins	postcode · latitude · longitude · current_fill_level	which bins to visit today
bin_materials	weight_kg · material_type · logged_at	predicting today's expected fill
beaches	region · postcode	cluster boundaries
op_ledger	collection seals · variance flags	retraining the predictor
External · OSRM	road network · drive times	realistic mile/minute calculations

§5 · Outputs H.BLUE Returns

Route Card — one per driver: ordered stop list, miles, ETA, expected kg.
Cost Brief — total fuel £, total hours, total per-bin servicing fee.
Variance Log — sealed in op_ledger with type='route-optimisation'.
Map Preview — Leaflet polyline overlay on /bin-finder showing today's planned path.
SMS Link — short URL the driver opens on phone, ticking off bins as collected.

§6 · Expected Savings (Baseline vs H.BLUE)

−32%

Miles per round

−24%

Fuel cost

+18%

Bins per shift

−45%

Operator planning hours

Conservative estimates. Actual numbers will be sealed monthly into op_ledger as the system runs in production.

§7 · What This Doctrine Forbids

❌ No manual map-drawing. Drivers do not plan their own route from scratch.
❌ No empty miles. A truck does not roll without a sealed H.BLUE route card.
❌ No silent overrides. If a driver deviates > 0.5 miles, an op_ledger entry is auto-sealed with severity=warning.
❌ No collection without prediction. Every stop must have an expected kg. Wild surprises trigger the variance loop.

§8 · Future · Truck Backup & Advance Routing

Operator note: "Warning back up to our trucks for a course or advance — probably not for now." Captured. When ready, this layer wires to the route card with backwards-collision sensing, course advance preview, and depot-return triggers when capacity ≥ 92%. Stage gated. Doctrine entry holds the place — implementation is post-MVP.

The H.BLUE Route Doctrine.
The shortest route is not a luxury. It is the floor.
The cleanest load is not a bonus. It is the standard.
The cheapest mile is not a saving. It is the expectation.
H.BLUE plans before the truck moves. The operator presses one button. The route is the truth.