Introduction
The PTV Developer Route Optimisation API allows you to schedule and optimise your fleet routes to ensure the most efficient use of resources.
Solving the VRP (Vehicle Routing Problem) is a complex challenge: Even for one vehicle and five orders, there are 120 possible route alternatives. With more vehicles and stops as well as other relevant factors like truck attributes, traffic patterns and time restrictions to consider, the VRP becomes much more complex and challenging to solve. With the Route Optimisation APIs, you can plan and optimise round trips, open trips, or depot-free trips whether they include depot-related or AB-orders within seconds. For this, we provide two APIs:
- The Plans API: Use this API to transfer your locations, fleet and transports to the service. As a result, you get a plan ID.
- The Operations API: Use this API to start the optimisation process for the previously generated plan in a separate job.
The APIs are separated because the optimisation can be a long-lasting process, so your work is not blocked by the optimisation.
The PTV Developer Route Optimisation API enables you to:
- Solve a variety of vehicle routing problems (VRPs): The Route Optimisation API can calculate even the most complicated routes, such as round trips, open trips, or depot-free trips, with depot-related or AB-orders, mixed fleets, pickups and deliveries, time windows and multiple depot locations.
- Account for vehicle types and attributes: Define your vehicles’ attributes (e.g., size, length, and weight as well as loading capacity, special cargo, and speed profiles) and the Optimisation API calculates a route that considers all truck-specific attributes in addition to access restrictions in inner-city areas and toll charges. There is no limit on the fleet size – the software solution will grow with your company.
- Adjust for traffic patterns and construction sites: Dynamically optimise your routes by using not only static traffic data but also traffic patterns, and information about ongoing construction work.
- Include time restrictions and legal regulations: Consider internal or legal regulations regarding break and rest times for your drivers, opening hours of depot locations and ramps or preferred delivery times and factor them into your route planning.
- Change schedules easily thanks to live dispatching: Has an accident occurred on your planned route? Has an order been cancelled or added at the last minute? If things don’t go as planned, the Route Optimisation API enables the dispatcher to manually intervene and helps find the best solution fast.
- Achieve your fleet scheduling goals: Do you want to minimise the use of vehicles? Improve your existing schedule? Evenly distribute the workload among your drivers? Improve service times with your customers? The Route Optimisation API is the right tool for the job!