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Dispatching & Routes

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Free Open Street Map tiles

What is TrackService?

TrackService is a web API for dispatching and route optimization. These services are available to your application and may be accessed anywhere on the net.

TrackRoad.com

Whether you are launching a new web site or looking for a way to integrate route optimization and intelligent dispatching solution into your existing application we can help you with our TrackService web services. For developers, we have provided the same powerful engine in the API that runs our auto dispatching and route optimization of TrackRoad.com . Now you can seemlessly integrate our routing technology into your application.

XML Reference

The vehicle routing problem (VRP) is a computationally complex issue. There are also different variations to routing which require different approachs to solving the problem. Our API helps hide most of the complexity that is inherent in vehicle routing and route optimization. And our logic makes auto dispatching and route optimization simple to use and easy to implement in your production environment.

For additional info please call 1-800-876-2060 or email us

In the following pages, you will be guided on how to use TrackService using Soap and XML. You may also download sample for further study.
Download Sample

Getting Started with API

What you need to get started with TrackService web API.

How to get a key?

To use TrackService you must first get an Account ID. A developer Account ID will grant you access to all the API functions.

Fill out a short form to tell us you need a key

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	Free Map Tiles
	We are proud to offer (free of charge) OpenStreetMap tiles to our users. Every one is encouraged to use these tiles. Available immediately, this service can be used freely under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.
	We follow the same map tile system as Microsoft Bing Map Tile System. For further explanation please see:
	http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb259689.aspx
	To access tiles send requests to:
	http://tile.trackroad.com/
	There maybe changes in the future depending on the availability of resources. We reserve the right to change our policy without prior notice. If you plan to use our tile service for commercial use you should let us know in advance register

What is Vehicle Routing, Auto-Dispatching & Route Optimization?

Every time you must service a number of locations with a fleet of vehicles you have a vehicle routing matter. The question will be which vehicle goes where and the goal will be minimizing the cost of travel and distribution.

TrackService can auto-dispatch stops and perform route optimization for each vehicle's route. Since there can be different logistics in vehicle routing, we've added the DispatchMode property to accomodate different situations. The vehicle routing problem (VRP) can have several variations (VRP with pickup/delivery, VRP with TimeWindow, VRP capacitated, etc.) and the DispatchMode is to help with these situations.

Also, our logic employs several factors such as vehicle position relative to stops, time window, maximum number of stops vehicle can make in a single route and total amount of time vehicle can be on the road in calculating the route. All of these decisions are helped by our built-in algorithm while DispatchMode hides the complexity of vehicle routing and lets you focus on other tasks.

What is the best dispatching mode?

There is no single answer to this question. Depending on the situation and the vehicle's start/finish locations you should use a different DispatchMode. The two most popular dispatching modes are Central and MultipleRegion.

Central for pickup from a central facility & delivery

MultipleRegion when vehicles are scattered in several regions

SingleRegion vehicles start from same location and visit same area

Reference

CalculateDistance

CalculateRoute

Dispatch

Geocode

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	CalculateDistance
	Calculate Distance. This method returns estimated driving distance from point A to point B. Since CalculateDistance is only an estimate (accurate 99% of the time), currently calling this method does not count as one transaction

	CalculateRoute
	CalculateRoute returns distances and turn-by-turn directions.

Dispatch

The first parameter is a list of vehicles objects (List ). The vehicle object also has lat/lon and a lat/lon for an optional finish location. The second parameter to the web method is a list of stop locations that must be visited by the vehicles. The location object can contain name, street, city, state, zip, country and lat/lon fields. In the event lat/lon are not zero then they will be used for the location, otherwise geocoding is performed to find lat/lon for the given location.

Dispatch web method returns a list of vehicle items. Each vehicle stops location list contains the route assigned to the vehicle. The return list may also contain start/finish locations.

Use the location TimeConstraintArrival property if you have time-sensentive deliveries.

DispatchMode

Dispatching mode only applies when there are mutiple vehicles. When there is one vehicle available then only route optimization is performed since there is nothing to dispatch (all stops are assigned to a single vehicle).

Central

Route is divided into equal chuncks of approximately same distance. Works well for deliveries orginating from warehouse or a single depot(central) or when all vehicles start from same location and everyone is supposed to drive same distance.

EqualStop

Driver's max stops is changed to an equal number. Use this if you want every driver to have same number of stops. Not terribly efficient but may apply in some situations.

SingleRegion

Drivers are sent to the same area. Very efficient when vehicles are scattered. Not efficient if drivers start at same location. However, this mode is fastest for servicing clients who are in the same area.

MultipleRegion

Dispatches in geographically dispersed mode. Works great when vehicles are in completely different cities, constantly on the move or are in different areas of the same city. This is probably the best method for time-sensitive and mission-critical application like courier, dispatching or trucking. Itc can work well in real-time mode using GPS devices.


	Specification Object
CurrentTime	Use CurrentTime when TimeConstraintArrival is specified. System uses CurrentTime to calculate approximate arrival time.
DispatchMode	Central or EqualStop or SingleRegion or MultipleRegion
MinimumOptimization	Number of iterations to find best route
DistanceUnit	Mile or Kilometer

	Vehicle Object
Name	Vehicle name or ID. String
Email	Vehicle email. String
Group	Group this vehilce belongs. String
Speed	Speed of the vehicle. A constanct variable. Integer
MaxStops	Maximum number of stops vehicle can make in each single route. When MaxStops is reached the route is split into v_, v_2, v_3, etc. Integer
MaxWeight	Each Location is given a weight variable. MaxWeight is total weight (double) a vehicle can accomodate before it is set aside.
MaxSkids	Maximum number of skids a vehicle can accomodate. When this value is reached, the vehicle is set aside.
MaxVolume	Maximum volume a vehicle can accoumodate. This value could be tonnage, metric, liter or anything you want it to be.
OnTheRoad	OnTheRoad feature allows specifying whether the vehicle should come back to the start point before starting the next route sequence. The OnTheRoad only applies when MaxStops or MaxMinutes for a vehicle are greater than 0 and stops/minutes count reache maximum value. For example, a vehicle with a MaxStops of 10 per day and 50 stops will have a route that will last 5 days with 10 stops for every day. When we have more than one day for a vehicle's route, the question becomes: do we want to start from the vehicle's initial starting point the next day (a warehouse) or do start from last day's finish location (we are on-the-road)? If a route spans over several days and you do not wish to return back to initial start point every time then set OnTheRoad to true.
Tin/Tout	Time in/Time out for the vehicle. This is for internal use only and has no effect on dispatching.
StartLocation	Vehicle initial position. All route optimization are calculated relative to this location
FinishLocation	An optional ending location for the vehicle. Use this only if necessary to go to a certain location at the end of a route.

	Location Object
Name	Location name
Delivery	Optional delivery name. If not blank, this should be the name of another location object in the series of locations sent to server. Use only if you have pickup and delivery. Otherwise leave blank.
Vehicle	Vehicle name. Use only if you have preassigned vehicle for location. Otherwise leave blank.
LatLong	LatLong of the location. You can either specify lat/lon or an address. In case a lat/lon is provided it will be used. Otherwise system will try to parse and geocode the address provided.
Address	Address of the location. If Lat/Long is provided address will be ignored.
Priority	Scale of 0-10 (10 highest, 0 lowest).
Wait	Waiting time at the location. Examples, loading time, boarding time, waiting time to vist someone. This value is in seconds and will be added to the route time.
Volume	Volume or any other quantity at this location
Weight	Weight or any other quantity at the location
Skids	Number of skids (or boxes) at the location
TimeConstraintArrival	Desired arrival time at the location.
TimeConstraintDeparture	Desired departure time from the location.
LocationType	Midway or Start or Finish
CanArriveEarly	When a TimeConstraintArrival is specified, is it possible to arrive early at the location? For example, if a store opens at 9am then vehicle should not arrive anytime sooner than 9am.
Distance	Distance to the next location. This is calculated for each leg of the journey and returned by system.
Time	Time to the next location (in seconds). This value is calculated and returned by system. It does not include waiting time at each location.

	Geocode
	Accepts a list of locations and geocodes them. The location object can contain name, street, city, state, zip, country. It returns back a list of stops with lat/lon. Each address counts as one transaction.

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