This document provides an overview for how to perform fleet-wide route optimization for your daily delivery operations using two products:
- Fleet Engine
- Route Optimization API (GMPRO)
By itself, Fleet Engine can take input from any route solver using the route plans you provide to the Fleet Engine backend. However, if you don't have your own route solver, or if you are interested in exploring other routing solutions, you can use Route Optimization API in conjunction with Fleet Engine to do continuous route optimization throughout the day.
Introduction
In your daily delivery operations, your fleet solution would typically use the Fleet engine service for the following route optimization workflows:
- Initial route planning—Define your daily route plans using your route solver and input them into Fleet Engine for visibility by drivers, execution, and tracking.
- Re-optimization—Select specific routes in the middle of the day to address route changes, such as traffic issues or changes to time windows, and re-optimize for more streamlined driver and customer experience.
- New stop allocations—Allocate new stops, such as ad hoc pickup requests, across existing routes.
the Route Optimization API and Fleet Engine provide a combination of planning and tracking capabilities to make this possible.
Route Optimization API
The Google Maps Platform Route Optimization API (GMPRO) addresses complex vehicle routing needs. An example is creating a plan for deliveries and delivery vehicles, while also applying constraints such as pickup time and package weight. GMPRO can create routing plans either asynchronously or in near real time, depending on the number of vehicles in your routing plan. For more information about Route Optimization, see the Route Optimization API documentation.
Fleet Engine
Fleet Engine is part of Mobility services. With Fleet Engine, you model your fleet, plan driver activities, and maintain real-time tracking of packages as your drivers deliver them. Modeling your fleet involves defining vehicles, tasks, stops, and route segments.
System components
The following diagram describes how your own systems would integrate Fleet Engine, Mobility services APIs, and the Route Optimization API for a system that enhances and optimizes your planning and daily fleet operations. In this diagram, GMPRO uses Google Maps Distance Matrix services and data for its problem solving, but your integration can use other providers instead.
Each component serves a specific purpose in your fleet management system:
- Your driver application — You create iOS and Android mobile applications for your drivers using the Driver and Navigation SDKs. The Driver SDK enables real-time updates of deliveries, vehicle locations, and order statuses, which you can display in your app. See the Driver SDK user guides for On-demand trips (Android, iOS). See the Navigation SDK documentation.
- Your operations — You can create a web dashboard built with Google Fleet Tracking Library to show live data from all vehicles. With this, you can orchestrate and monitor your fleet.
- Your systems — Your backend services and databases enable the secure daily operations of your business.
- Google Systems — Route Optimization API uses the Distance Matrix API to find travel distance and time for multiple locations.
Next steps
If you are interested in exploring how to integrate Fleet Engine with Route Optimization API, see the following: