Update: capacity restrictions and more

Our route planner has been updated recently. The latest update holds a number of quality and speed improvements, new features and a few bug fixes. We’re now at version 8 which adds capacity requirements among other goodies.

Capacities

Multiple round route planning was already available, for planning routes for various vehicles, drivers or days. When creating multiple rounds, the route planner can now take into account the capacities, like volume and weight restrictions.

For example, you may have various vehicles that can carry different volumes e.g. one big lorry and two smaller ones. With the new update, the route planner can optimally calculate the route and assign addresses to each vehicle, taking into account the maximum volume it can carry.

You can set the capacity unit and the capacitities for each round or vehicle in Options > Parameters. The demand for capacity can be set for each destination seperately, either via the Location Details dialog or when importing locations between ^’s.

That’s not all, here are some of the other new features:

  • There is a new vehicle profile autobus, which has lower speeds and access to certain roads only accessible for busses.
  • The map style changes automatically with some geocoding services. E.g. when you select “Here” to find addresses on the map, their map style will also be shown.
  • Each location can have a heading, the angle of approach and departure, e.g. to keep destinations on the left or right side of the vehicle. These can be imported between *’s.
  • Somewhat experimental: turn costs are implemented. These are time penalties for left (or right) turns that can be set in the options. Same for the side of the road of your stops.
  • The location details dialog shows a new button for charging points, which will display charging stations near the location. These are linked to the source at Open Charge Map
  • Arrows have been added to the colored path on the map, indicating the direction of travel.
  • The CSV output can be customized by selecting the columns that you need.
  • There is a new download that has all your historical locations data in one file.
  • When using the fulfilment dialog, the progress of the route is saved and indicated on the map. You can skip stops and revisit them later, or replan the route.
  • Users of TomTom Telematics WEBFLEET platform can now use TomTom’s geocoding service to locate addresses on the map. Also, the type of order can be selected when exporting the route to WEBFLEET devices, e.g. delivery, pickup or service.

Personal data

In line with the new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) we’ve also updated our privacy statement to make more transparent what personal data we process. As a result, routes must now explicity be set public before sharing with other people or across accounts.

You’ll see a notice when a route is created or when tapping the Share button. If not marked public, a route is private and only available when someone is logged in with your account. The route URL will not be available and others can not see the route.

We’ll also clear more personal data from our database. Routes that are not saved as favorites, or marked public, will automatically be deleted from your account after a minimum period of 7 days. After this, only anonymized metadata of these routes will be kept for our statistics.

Support

We’ve tested the new version for quite a while on our test site and we’re confident it will make your work even more productive, easy and fun. Still, if you see improvements, have remarks or find bugs, send us an email or check out the support forums.

Happy routing and drive safe!