Feature Proposal: Max Working Hours with Mandatory Breaks

[shubham441996]

Mandatory Work-Rest Breaks

Problem Statement

Drivers can't work indefinitely — regulations and safety policies require them to rest after working continuously for a set amount of time. Right now, the routing solver has no way to enforce this automatically.

The goal: add a rule that says "after a driver has been working for X hours straight, they must take a Y-minute break — and this repeats throughout their shift."

Everything after the driver leaves the depot counts as work — driving, waiting, and serving customers. Time at the depot before departure and the break itself do not count.

---

Example

Max continuous work: 5 hours | Break duration: 30 minutes | Shift: 7am–7pm

Time	Activity	Hours Accumulated
7:00am	Loading at depot	— (not counting yet)
8:00am	Departs depot	Clock starts → 0h
8:00–10:00am	Driving	2h
10:00–11:00am	Waiting at stop (arrived early)	3h
11:00am–12:00pm	Serving customer	4h
12:00–1:00pm	Driving	5h → must break
1:00–1:30pm	🛑 Break	Clock resets → 0h
1:30pm onward	Next stretch begins	Up to 5h again

A 12-hour shift with a 5-hour rule produces 2 mandatory breaks — at hours 5 and 10 of accumulated work.

{
  "limits": {
    "maxWorkingDuration": 18000,
    "breakDuration": 1800
  }
}

[shubham441996]

@reinterpretcat, please suggest what will be the best approach for implementing it

[reinterpretcat]

I haven't read entire LLM-generated text, but basically suggestions are:

1. extend https://github.com/reinterpretcat/vrp/blob/master/vrp-core/src/construction/enablers/reserved_time.rs (not optimal, but relatively doable)
2. refactor the way timestamps of activities are handled in tours (good, but quite heavy refactoring)