Cash-in-Transit Routing

Cash-in-Transit (CIT) Routing is the operational routing problem for armoured cash-transport vehicles that visit a bank's branches and ATMs to deliver or collect cash (typically 8-25 ATMs per night, 22:00-06:00 shift). It is a variant of the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) but is distinguished by four cash-specific dimensions: (a) **security / route unpredictability** — a fixed weekly route produces predictability and raises heist/robbery risk; insurer contracts include route-confidentiality clauses, so a solution must produce a different (yet still cost-effective) route each night; (b) **tight time windows** — opening/closing hours of the ATM location (shopping centre, office tower, campus) constrain the route, and critical-low ATMs may trigger intra-night re-routing; (c) **denomination** — the in-vehicle cash quantity plus denomination mix (small/medium/large notes) binds both capacity and the insurance limit; (d) **regulation** — banking-regulator CIT-monitoring obligations, insurer reporting, real-time GPS monitoring, vehicle-crew rotation rules. When ATM Cash Management is solved holistically (forecasting + inventory + routing), Larrain-Coelho-Cataldo (2017) **Variable MIP Neighborhood Descent (VMND)** yields good practical quality at the mid-large (100-500 ATM) scale; for routing-only variants, classical VRP / Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search (ALNS) handle 200-1,000 ATMs.