Home

Products

ODL Live

ODL Studio

ODL Connect

Data

Our Clients

Downloads

Tutorials

Introduction to ODL Studio

Installing ODL Studio

Viewing customers on a map

Geocoding

Reporting

Territory design

Vehicle routing & scheduling

Advanced configuration

Building road network graphs

Customising background maps

External travel times and distance matrix

Systems integration using command line - ODL Connect

People

Contact

Simplified vehicle routing model configuration using custom templates Posted 10 Jan 2023 Our ODL Live vehicle route optimiser engine supports many different constraints, costs and rules which can be configured to solve different sorts of routing problems - e.g. parcel deliveries, scheduling mobile technicians, planning patient transportation, periodic problems etc. So far, so good… except this leads to another problem, which we haven’t always succeeding in solving as well as I’d like. As we add more options to the engine, it becomes harder for clients to navigate the API, find the rules they need and structure their data accordingly!

So how do we make our API simpler to use, whilst keeping it fully-featured? We’ve recently added a ‘templates feature’, which lets clients pass data to ODL Live in a simple Excel format that’s tailored to their individual routing problem, containing only the fields they need and named according to their own terminology. We configure the template for the client, and the template converts the client’s own data in an Excel/CSV or flat JSON format to the hierarchical JSON data structures used by ODL Live.

Each client gets their own template based on their requirements. Their template contains all the rules needed for their routing problem (e.g. lateness penalties, clustering parameters, customised job types), hidden neatly away.



We expose to the client only the few key fields and parameters they need to know and care about (and give sane defaults to the hidden parameters they don’t need to know).

Combined with the route plans Excel exporter, the client just needs to populate and then pull data back from easy Excels. The only fields they need to fill in, are fields they already know and use. Our aim is to have a solid working MVP integration from Day 1 based on the simplest possible format for exchanging data with the engine, for the client’s own problem.

When numbers need adjusting based on feedback from drivers, human planners etc, we just tweak the template and send the client a new version. If the client wants to peek at some of the magic under the hood, it’s there for them to see, but this is totally optional. We keep it simple.

So far this is just for ‘next day’ type problems, where you plan before the start of a drivers shift. Extending this to realtime problems is trickier because you need an event flow (e.g. GPS, proof-of-delivery), but certainly do-able.

More to come on that soon. « Fairness constraint for passenger transportation planning with rideshare Non-emergency medical transportation - Route planning with Pickup Time Optimisation » ODL Studio screenshots Previous Next Recent posts September 01, 2023 - Non-emergency medical transportation - Route planning with Pickup Time Optimisation

January 10, 2023 - Simplified vehicle routing model configuration using custom templates

November 22, 2022 - Fairness constraint for passenger transportation planning with rideshare

September 05, 2022 - Contiguity constraint in vehicle routing problems

April 27, 2022 - Periodic vehicle routing problems for customers needing regular deliveries

April 20, 2022 - 2-echelon vehicle routing problems / multi-level routing problems

April 06, 2022 - ODL Studio vehicle routing documentation updated

August 01, 2021 - On-board time limits for food deliveries and minimising waiting time

June 27, 2021 - Flexible vehicle routing with different types of jobs

April 12, 2021 - Green vehicle routing with park and loop optimisation View all posts

📌 January 10, 2023 - Simplified vehicle routing model configuration using custom templates (Bathinda)
🏢 OPEN DOOR LOGISTICS
📍 Bathinda