A loaded distance penalty is a hidden cost that is scaled by both the distance travelled by a vehicle and the amount loaded on the vehicle while travelling.
More precisely, the loaded distance penalty for a vehicle over a single travel segment is defined as:
TransitDistance × LoadedQuantity × PenaltyFactor
where TransitDistance is the distance travelled in that segment (in either kilometres or miles), LoadedQuantity is the amount loaded on the vehicle over that segment and PenaltyFactor is a user-supplied value. The loaded distance penalty of a vehicle’s route is the sum of the loaded distance penalties over all of its individual travel segments.
Loaded distance penalties can be applied to either the weight loaded on the vehicle, the volume loaded on the vehicle or both.