Pricing a Dynamic Fleet Using Simulated Route Optimizations

You can simulate route optimization of the dynamic fleet and choose the correct parameters for optimal pricing.

Description

The core functionality of the Route4Me API is a unique route optimization engine, which substantially reduces route length and gas consumption. It also helps to reduce the manpower needed to fulfill the route and reduce the time needed to find optimal route. With this engine you can find most cost-efficient solution by fine-tuning route parameters and simulating the route optimization.

Consider the following business case: You've been extending your delivery business to a new area and you need to consider two options to improve the cost efficiency: use the existing depot to serve new clients or rent/buy a new depot location. To make a decision on which option is more cost efficient for you, you need to analyze the following factors:

• Rental/purchase cost for new depot location;
• Potential change in distance traveled by your delivery fleet and potential change in working time for you delivery drivers team and changes in a number of drivers required. Eventually, you need to calculate and analyze the resulting changes in the overall delivery cost;
• You may want to consider several different locations, analyzing the above factors for each of potential depot location from your list and then compare them using some quantitative data.

As you can see the above analysis may become quite laborious, if not impossible, if you perform it without the proper tools and expertise. Alternatively, you can use Route4Me to enter all the above parameters in our robust route optimization engine and thoroughly analyze cost consequences coming from the new business opportunities and select the most efficient solutions for your business and eventually minimize your profit

Route4Me Online Tool - Depot Analyzer Simulation

The Route4Me Depot Analyzer app helps you to find the location for your next warehouse by analyzing all the past and projected orders in the vicinity. The tool can accurately define which of your existing depots, or depots you're considering to purchase or rent, would be the most efficient to service a given set of addresses.

You can find the tool here: follow this link to access the tool https://apps.route4me.com/depots/#/ .

Click on the button Create New Depot Analyzer Simulation.

Name Your Simulation. Type in a name for the simulation (e.g. name of the region).

Prepare the Files for Upload. Next, prepare the files for upload. You need to create one file for your depots and another one for your locations to visit. You can download sample files to see the formatting of the spreadsheets. The Depots file can include up to 500 addresses.

Fill the simulation assumptions.

Click on the button Begin Analysis

The optimization will apply to all the depots and multiple routes will be created as a result. Depending on the number of locations, you may get one or multiple routes for each depot. The simulation progress will be displayed on the main page.

Simulated routes will be added to your routes list. You can open and modify each of them as you see any fit.

You can find more details on the optimization results here

Solution

Optimization Parameters

This use case is very specific because it requires using of many parameters. When modeling the route and estimating its cost-effciency, you may want to pay special attention to the following parameters:

Route Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
mpg	float	Miles per gallon
gas_price	float	Miles per gallon
vehicle_capacity	integer	How much cargo can the vehicle carry (cubic meters)
vehicle_max_cargo_weight	float	Maximum weight vehicle can carry
vehicle_max_cargo_volume	float	Maximum cargo volume vehicle can carry
vehicle_max_distance_mi	integer	Max distance for a single vehicle in this route (always in miles)
subtour_max_revenue	float	Maximum revenue amount from subtour
parts	integer	Quantity of the subtours (route parts)
parts_min	integer	Minimum quantity of the subtours
max_tour_size	integer	Maximum quantity of the destinations on a subtour
min_tour_size	integer	Minimum quantity of the destinations on a subtour

Addresses:

Parameter	Type	Description
weight	float	Cargo (package) weight
cost	float	Service cost for the destination
revenue	float	Service reveniu from the destination
cube	integer	Cargo (package) volume (cubic meters)
pieces	integer	Quantity of the cargo (package) pieces

Note

If your users/drivers are collecting COD (Cash on Delivery), you may want to be sure they do not accumulate more than a certain amount of cash for the route. If you set a maximum of $10,000 in revenue per route, drivers will never be routed to customers where they can exceed total aggregated revenue for the entire route.

Create an Optimization

You can create new optimization for this use case. From the cUrl example bellow you can see that:

• the endpoint for this task is: https://www.route4me.com/api.v4/optimization_problem.php
• input data is stored in the file single_depot_multi_driver_no_tw_data.json

Parameter	Type	Description
api_key	string	API KEY of the user
input data	POST data	Valid JSON object string. Click here to see the JSON Schema

@ECHO OFF
:: Single Depot, Multiple Driver, No Time Window

::See video tutorial here: http://support.route4me.com/route-planning-help.php?id=manual0:tutorial2:chapter2:subchapter1

SET URL=https://www.route4me.com/api.v4/optimization_problem.php
SET apikey=11111111111111111111111111111111
SET route_path_output=Points

ECHO ON

curl -o file1.txt -g -X POST -k -d "@single_depot_multi_driver_no_tw_data.json" "%URL%?api_key=%apikey%&route_path_output=%route_path_output%" 

timeout /t 30

You can expect an Optimization problem (see link), with several generated routes.

View the Optimization details

The endpoint: https://www.route4me.com/api.v4/optimization_problem.php

HTTP Parameters

Attribute	Type	Description	HTTP method
api_key	string	API KEY of the user	GET
optimization_problem_id	string	Optimization problem ID	GET

@ECHO OFF
SET url=https://www.route4me.com/api.v4/optimization_problem.php
SET apikey=11111111111111111111111111111111
SET optprobid=C2831D56008E8F6EA5B8FFDEA11883AF

ECHO ON
curl -o file1.txt -g -X GET -k "%URL%?api_key=%apikey%&optimization_problem_id=%optprobid%" 

timeout /t 30

See sample RESPONSE JSON data here

System will send a RESPONSE with an array of the addresses which belongs to 11 generated routes.

"optimization_problem_id": "C2831D56008E8F6EA5B8FFDEA11883AF"

"route_id": "0AE877849C7F45A24B4D19BAC459895C"
"route_id": "1D866267B57AA9FC35D3B2797E14CD51"
"route_id": "23E4A452491D4AE6929DA07B080F0845"
"route_id": "4B3431CDBFECD1A6949C9C9B8475F5A3"
"route_id": "4D674B5A0759B0BC6FCE5B6160FBE5F4"
"route_id": "662A22F8821F3283F2663F7B1B055FB8"
"route_id": "6BD568797050B2AA355CC107D1400226"
"route_id": "900320428AF484F243EEEEA55561D425"
"route_id": "C1D8642253B7B7C52B909961F71E0A67"
"route_id": "E6C755FBF0D34F8EB50FDAA7FC5EEB70"
"route_id": "E9215F86ED134496A33C50BBD6AFC433"

Details of the Optimized Routes

You can get more details of these routes (see below the one route example, you can also get details of the rest 10 routes using the same method by adjusting the parameter route_id):

The endpoint: https://www.route4me.com/api.v4/route.php

HTTP Parameters

Attribute	Type	Description	HTTP method
api_key	string	API KEY of the user	GET
route_id	string	Route ID	GET
route_path_output	string	If equal to 'Poitns', you'll get an array of the path points to next address	GET

@ECHO OFF
SET url=https://www.route4me.com/api.v4/route.php
SET apikey=11111111111111111111111111111111
SET routeid=0AE877849C7F45A24B4D19BAC459895C
SET rpo=Points

ECHO ON

curl -o file1.txt -g -k -X GET "%url%?route_id=%routeid%&api_key=%apikey%&route_path_output=%rpo%"

timeout /t 30

See sample RESPONSE JSON data here

Note

System will send a RESPONSE with an array of the fields path_to_next. Those will be used to draw routes on a map, exactly as they generated by Route4Me API.

You can see a route drawn on the map by the Route4Me API:

You can draw all 11 generated routes as:

Estimating of the Routes

You can analyze the generated routes.

Route_id	Trip Distance	Travel Time	Service Time	Route Cost	Route Revenue	Net Revenue
0AE877849C7F45A24B4D19BAC459895C	15.15	0:33:07	0:31:40	83	161	5.15
1D866267B57AA9FC35D3B2797E14CD51	7.5	0:22:21	0:40:00	72	145	9.73
23E4A452491D4AE6929DA07B080F0845	11.51	0:29:08	0:40:00	93	177	7.3
4B3431CDBFECD1A6949C9C9B8475F5A3	9.1	0:30:51	0:28:20	85	168	9.12
4D674B5A0759B0BC6FCE5B6160FBE5F4	6.77	0:17:12	0:50:00	94	181	12.85
662A22F8821F3283F2663F7B1B055FB8	27.61	1:05:21	1:15:00	136	283	5.32
6BD568797050B2AA355CC107D1400226	18.58	0:36:53	0:25:00	66	131	3.5
900320428AF484F243EEEEA55561D425	0	0:00:00	0:20:00	120	240	0
C1D8642253B7B7C52B909961F71E0A67	14.26	0:38:44	1:01:40	117	234	8.2
E6C755FBF0D34F8EB50FDAA7FC5EEB70	8.11	0:20:22	0:45:00	81	161	9.86
E9215F86ED134496A33C50BBD6AFC433	7.71	0:17:31	0:25:00	78	157	10.25
TOTALS	126.3	5:11:30	7:21:40	1025	2038

Note

Net Revenue is a route net revenue per distance unit. Travel Time and Service Time are in hh:mm:ss format.

Resolve the Failed Route Problem

Let's model another configuration of the routes. You can notice that one route has null Travel Time value. If you inspect route data file (see the file here), you'll notice that this route is missing path_to_next parameters. That means you can't draw it on a map as Route4Me API direct output, but you can connect the addresses of this route by other engine (for example, using OSM engine). You can see this route on a map as:

You can draw and estimate routes #2 and #4 on the map as well:

As you may notice that it's possible to move selected destination from the route #8 to route #4. 3 other destinations of the route #8 move to route #2. Finally you can remove failed route #8.

The endpoint: https://www.route4me.com/actions/route/move_route_destination.php

HTTP Parameters

Attribute	Type	Description	HTTP method
api_key	string	API KEY of the user	GET
route_id	string	Route ID	GET
to_route_id	string	Recipient Route ID	POST
to_route_id	string	Recipient route ID	POST
route_destination_id	integer	Route destination ID to be moved	POST
after_destination_id	integer	Route destination ID in recipent route after which will be inserted moved destination	POST

Move the destination (route_destination_id = 188936049) to #4 route

@ECHO OFF

SET url=https://www.route4me.com/actions/route/move_route_destination.php
SET apikey=11111111111111111111111111111111

:: address recipient route ID
SET trid=4B3431CDBFECD1A6949C9C9B8475F5A3

:: The destination to be moved - address "434 N 26TH STREET #2, Louisville, KY, 40212" in the route "4B3431CDBFECD1A6949C9C9B8475F5A3", sequence # = 2
SET rdi=188936049

:: ID of the destination in recipient route, after which the moved destination should be inserted. "117 FOUNT LANDING CT, Louisville, KY, 40212"
SET adi=188936068

ECHO ON

curl -o file1.txt -g -X POST -k -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data;" -F "to_route_id=%trid%" -F "route_destination_id=%rdi%" -F "after_destination_id=%adi%" "%url%?api_key=%apikey%"

timeout /t 30

You can expect this API response:

{
 "success":true
}

Move the destinations (route_destination_id = 188936025,188936050,188936065) to #2 route

@ECHO OFF

SET url=https://www.route4me.com/actions/route/move_route_destination.php
SET apikey=11111111111111111111111111111111

:: address recipient route ID
SET trid=1D866267B57AA9FC35D3B2797E14CD51

SET rdi_1=188936025
SET rdi_3=188936050
SET rdi_4=188936065

SET adi_3=188936078

SET adi_1=188936051
SET adi_4=188936025

ECHO ON

curl -o file3.txt -g -X POST -k -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data;" -F "to_route_id=%trid%" -F "route_destination_id=%rdi_3%" -F "after_destination_id=%adi_3%" "%url%?api_key=%apikey%"

START /WAIT curl -o file1.txt -g -X POST -k -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data;" -F "to_route_id=%trid%" -F "route_destination_id=%rdi_1%" -F "after_destination_id=%adi_1%" "%url%?api_key=%apikey%"

START /WAIT curl -o file4.txt -g -X POST -k -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data;" -F "to_route_id=%trid%" -F "route_destination_id=%rdi_4%" -F "after_destination_id=%adi_4%" "%url%?api_key=%apikey%"

timeout /t 30

You can expect this API response:

{
 "success":true
}

You can run script for getting the details of the optimization problem (see the response JSON file here) and check that the problematic #8 route has no addresses anymore.

Remove empty #8 route

The endpoint: https://www.route4me.com/api.v4/route.php

HTTP Parameters

Attribute	Type	Description	HTTP method
api_key	string	API KEY of the user	GET
route_id	string	Route ID	GET

@ECHO OFF

SET url=https://www.route4me.com/api.v4/route.php
SET apikey=11111111111111111111111111111111
SET "routeid=900320428AF484F243EEEEA55561D425"

ECHO ON

:: Example demonstrates the process of deleting specified routes by ids sent with HTTP DELETE data

curl -o file1.txt -g -k -X DELETE "%url%?api_key=%apikey%&route_id=%routeid%" 

timeout /t 30

You can expect this API response:

{
 "deleted": true,
 "route_id": "900320428AF484F243EEEEA55561D425",
 "route_ids": ["900320428AF484F243EEEEA55561D425"]
}

You can run script again for getting the details of the optimization problem (see the response JSON file here) and check that the problematic route doesn't exist anymore and there are only 10 routes available in the optimization problem.

Get details of the #2 and #4 routes

You can run the script described above for getting the route details and inspect route #2 (see the response JSON file here) and route #4 (see the response JSON file here).

Routes #2 and #4 can be drawn on the map as:

Let us estimate the routes again:

Route_id	Trip Distance	Travel Time	Service Time	Route Cost	Route Revenue	Net Revenue
0AE877849C7F45A24B4D19BAC459895C	15.15	0:33:07	0:31:40	83	161	5.15
1D866267B57AA9FC35D3B2797E14CD51	8.97	0:27:25	0:55:00	162	325	18.17
23E4A452491D4AE6929DA07B080F0845	11.51	0:29:08	0:40:00	93	177	7.3
4B3431CDBFECD1A6949C9C9B8475F5A3	9.63	0:32:46	0:33:20	115	228	11.73
4D674B5A0759B0BC6FCE5B6160FBE5F4	6.77	0:17:12	0:50:00	94	181	12.85
662A22F8821F3283F2663F7B1B055FB8	27.61	1:05:21	1:15:00	136	283	5.32
6BD568797050B2AA355CC107D1400226	18.58	0:36:53	0:25:00	66	131	3.5
C1D8642253B7B7C52B909961F71E0A67	14.26	0:38:44	1:01:40	117	234	8.2
E6C755FBF0D34F8EB50FDAA7FC5EEB70	8.11	0:20:22	0:45:00	81	161	9.86
E9215F86ED134496A33C50BBD6AFC433	7.71	0:17:31	0:25:00	78	157	10.25
TOTALS	128.3	5:18:29	7:21:40	1025	2038
Previous TOTALS	126.3	5:11:30	7:21:40	1025	2038

At first glance it seems that last configuration is less cost-efficient than the previous one. That is because the data of the failed route #8 was inserted into the new route configuration. If #8 route were correct one (see calculations in this folder), there would have been the following data:

Route_id	Trip Distance	Travel Time	Service Time	Route Cost	Route Revenue	Net Revenue	Fuel	Fuel Cost
900320428AF484F243EEEEA55561D425	5.02	0:14:37	0:20:00	120	240	25.9	0.5	1.0

Having the the Route Cost And Route Revenue were presented in failed route's row too, you can conclude that you may create a more cost-effective routes' configuration by moving some of destinations.

Change Routes' Parameters

Let us change route's parameters and analyze results.

As it was described above, all routes have similar parameters:

Route ID	mpg	gas price	vehicle capacity	vehicle max cargo weight	vehicle max cargo volume	vehicle max distance mi	subtour max revenue	parts	parts min	max tour size	min_ tour size
All routes	10	2	20	35	150	99999	10000	10	1	91	2

You can set different values for different routes:

Route ID	mpg	gas price	vehicle capacity	vehicle max cargo weight	vehicle max cargo volume	vehicle max distance mi	subtour max revenue	parts	parts min	max tour size	min_ tour size
0AE877849C7F45A24B4D19BAC459895C	10	2	20	35	150	99999	10000	10	1	91	2
1D866267B57AA9FC35D3B2797E14CD51	10	2	20	35	150	99999	10000	10	1	91	2
23E4A452491D4AE6929DA07B080F0845	12	2	25	45	200	99999	10000	10	1	91	2
4B3431CDBFECD1A6949C9C9B8475F5A3	18	2	40	60	350	80000	10000	10	1	91	2
4D674B5A0759B0BC6FCE5B6160FBE5F4	10	2	20	35	150	99999	10000	10	1	91	2
662A22F8821F3283F2663F7B1B055FB8	10	2	20	35	150	99999	10000	10	1	91	2
6BD568797050B2AA355CC107D1400226	10	2	15	25	100	99999	10000	10	1	91	2
C1D8642253B7B7C52B909961F71E0A67	10	2	10	35	80	99999	10000	10	1	91	2
E6C755FBF0D34F8EB50FDAA7FC5EEB70	10	2	20	35	150	99999	10000	10	1	91	2
E9215F86ED134496A33C50BBD6AFC433	10	2	20	35	150	99999	10000	10	1	91	2

The endpoint: https://www.route4me.com/api.v4/route.php

HTTP Parameters

Attribute	Type	Description	HTTP method
api_key	string	API KEY of the user	GET
route_id	string	Route ID	GET
Route Parameters	object	Valid JSON object string. Click here to see the JSON Schema	GET
Addresses	array	Valid JSON string of the Address objects. Click here to see the JSON Schema	GET

See sample INPUT JSON data here

@ECHO OFF

SET url=https://www.route4me.com/api.v4/route.php
SET apikey=11111111111111111111111111111111
SET routeid=4B3431CDBFECD1A6949C9C9B8475F5A3
SET opt_type=Time
SET disable_optimization=0

ECHO ON

curl -o file1.txt -g -k -X PUT -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d "@update_route_data.json" "%url%?api_key=%apikey%&route_id=%routeid%&disable_optimization=%disable_optimization%&optimize=%opt_type%"

timeout /t 30

See sample RESPONSE JSON data here

You can repeat above described steps for all the routes to be changed.

Changing the Details of a Specific Destination

You can change the details of a specific address and reoptimize a route, for example, you can change sequence of a destination.

Manually re-sequence the destinations

Let us manually re-sequence destinations of the 1-st route:

The selected destination has sequence number 6. Let's set it to 1.

The endpoint: https://www.route4me.com/api.v4/route.php

HTTP Parameters

Attribute	Type	Description	HTTP method
api_key	string	API KEY of the user	GET
route_id	string	Route ID	GET
route_destination_id	integer	Route destination ID	GET
Addresses	array	Valid JSON string of the Address objects with defined sequence_no. Click here to see the JSON Schema	GET

See sample INPUT JSON data here

@ECHO OFF

SET url=https://www.route4me.com/api.v4/route.php
SET apikey=11111111111111111111111111111111
SET routeid=F9B6621815ED4E8A577ECE701123E4B4
SET routedestinationid=188936066

ECHO ON

curl -o file1.txt -g -k -X PUT -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d "@update_address_sequence_in_route_data.json" "%url%?api_key=%apikey%&route_id=%routeid%&route_destination_id=%routedestinationid%"

timeout /t 30

See sample RESPONSE JSON data here

Change parameters of destination

The endpoint: https://www.route4me.com/api.v4/address.php

HTTP Parameters

Attribute	Type	Description	HTTP method
api_key	string	API KEY of the user	GET
route_id	string	Route ID	GET
route_destination_id	integer	Route destination ID	GET
Address	object	Valid JSON string of an Address object with defined parameters Click here to see the JSON Schema	GET

See sample INPUT JSON data here

@ECHO OFF

SET url=https://www.route4me.com/api.v4/address.php

SET apikey=11111111111111111111111111111111
SET routeid=5EE1E2D1B6E36792194FAF3369BC0C87
SET routedestinationid=188936088

ECHO ON

curl -o file1.txt -g -k -X PUT -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d "@update_route_destination_parameters_data.json" "%url%?api_key=%apikey%&route_id=%routeid%&route_destination_id=%routedestinationid%"

timeout /t 30

See sample RESPONSE JSON data here

Pay attention to these parameters in the response file:

"weight": 3,
"cost": 20,
"revenue": 45,
"cube": 2,
"pieces": 6

Re-optimize the Optimization Problem

Now you can reoptimize the optimization problem.

The endpoint: https://www.route4me.com/api.v4/optimization_problem.php

HTTP Parameters

Attribute	Type	Description	HTTP method
api_key	string	API KEY of the user	GET
optimization_problem_id	string	Optimization problem ID	GET
reoptimize	integer	If equal to 1, the optimization problem will be reoptimized	GET
Route Parameters	object	Valid JSON object string. Click here to see the JSON Schema	GET
Addresses	array	Valid JSON string of the Address objects. Click here to see the JSON Schema	GET

Note

After re-optimization the parameter route_id of the routes could be changed.

@ECHO OFF

SET url=https://www.route4me.com/api.v4/optimization_problem.php
SET apikey=11111111111111111111111111111111
SET optprobid=C2831D56008E8F6EA5B8FFDEA11883AF

ECHO ON
curl -o file1.txt -g -X PUT -k "%url%?api_key=%apikey%&optimization_problem_id=%optprobid%&reoptimize=1" 

timeout /t 30

See sample RESPONSE JSON data here

Review the Remodeling Results

You can do above described steps:

• View the Optimization details (See sample RESPONSE JSON data here);
• Details of the Optimized Routes (see get_route_path_points_2_RESPONSE_1.json ... get_route_path_points_2_RESPONSE_11.json files in the folder here);
• Estimating of the Routes.

Please find below the new set of cost-efficiency indicators of the generated routes:

Route_id	Trip Distance	Travel Time	Service Time	Route Cost	Route Revenue	Net Revenue
0B1302EC7CA8FE18C10E9F68A8B48569	3.94	0:13:57	0:20:00	120	240	23.58
22E89AA01D3206E66B1A32FF598F5D69	8.11	0:20:22	0:45:00	81	161	9.86
5EE1E2D1B6E36792194FAF3369BC0C87	7.71	0:17:31	0:25:00	80	167	11.28
74799314B572E6381A0AB7D42853FBFE	27.61	1:05:21	1:15:00	136	283	5.32
804CA996C1EDBA5128FBD3F679117609	18.58	0:36:53	0:25:00	66	131	3.5
87E9ECECE85254BBFAF4598F57DB077D	11.51	0:29:08	0:40:00	93	177	7.3
9C27B15CD6AC75B6305FD4B70BE321E5	14.26	0:38:44	1:01:40	117	234	8.2
9C4BEEF6CC691FC36FB5616E6609D4BF	9.1	0:30:51	0:28:20	85	168	9.12
9C62E1C31DEE49291DFA308517EF5D2B	6.77	0:17:12	0:50:00	94	181	12.85
C1CF10FBE454541E0A26FAD5F89762AE	7.5	0:22:21	0:40:00	72	145	9.73
F9B6621815ED4E8A577ECE701123E4B4	7.48	0:17:25	0:31:40	83	161	10.43
TOTALS	122.57	5:09:45	7:21:40	1027	2048
Previous TOTALS	128.3	5:18:29	7:21:40	1025	2038
Previous Previous TOTALS	126.3	5:11:30	7:21:40	1025	2038

As you can conclude from the table above, finally we got the most cost-efficient configuration of the routes.