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Show HN: Route Optimization API

routific.com

70 pointsmck-36 comments

I've never heard of Routific. Linking to your API, I was immediately intrigued and went to go visit the home page[1] of your product.

I have to say: well executed. This is a really good representation of how well Bootstrap can be implemented. From Retina display to mobile, the layout was clearly well thought-out and considered.

Interesting product and well-done design. Stuck this in the file for not only routing issues, but design and implementation inspiration.

[1] - https://www.routific.com

I work with a non profit that would benefit from this so much.

They employ 600+ staff serving over a thousand persons with disabilities and are currently starting their own transit arm to support the agency. They operate something like 2 dozen buses and large vans across 50+ recurring destinations.

Sounds awesome! Would love to talk about doing this pro-bono -- shoot me an email marc@routific.com

"Research shows our routes are up to 20% shorter" shorter than what? Which research?

You're lacking a lot of copy, but the idea is pretty good. Niche, but good. I'm interested to see if people will pay for it.

Here's my thesis paper for reference [1]

[1] http://thesis.eur.nl/pub/6427/6427-Kuo.pdf

You should put a link to a small bio of you somewhere on the front page. You clearly know what you're doing, but the copy on the page doesn't convey this clearly, I think.

Edit: OK, scratch that. I just realised that I was looking at a sub section of the site, not the actual front page. Although it probably wouldn't hurt to flash your credentials.

I just started to skim your thesis so I apologize if this is covered somewhere. Is it commonly understood that route optimizations for maritime transport are equivalent to automobile transport?

Maritime transport, specifically Tramp Ship Scheduling, is very similar to a taxi operation. Taxi logistics are known in literature as Pickup and Delivery Problems with Time Windows (PDPTW) -- which is an advanced type of VRPTW -- which, in turn, is more complex than the classic TSP.

To answer your question: mathematically, Tramp Shipping is a more advanced type of PDPTW, so they are almost equivalent.

We will support PDPTW on our API soon, but what I present here with Routific is but a subset of what I cover in my thesis: Multi-Depot Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows and Heterogenous Fleet with Shift Constraints (MDCVRPTWHFS -- so glad I did not pursue academia)

P.S.: in my thesis I also optimize the sailing speed of the ships, which -- as my thesis goes -- can save millions a year on top of an already optimized shipping fleet. The cubic relation between sailing speed and fuel consumption does not hold for vehicles on the road though.

Also, shorter distance or shorter time?

Or "greener" path, as RouteRANK does?!

http://lca.epfl.ch/projects/routerank/

I'm curious: What's your target market? I assume FedEx-size companies already optimize routes, and ver small companies may not understand the cost savings your site offers.

Not being negative - seems like a very good and potentially very big idea...but you'll have to prove its worthwhile.

You're right: FedEx and UPS are spending billions on route optimization. Must mean they see an ROI. What about the rest who cannot afford that?

Routific makes route optimization accessible for SMEs, as well as large enterprises who are risk-averse towards committing lots of capital to consultants.

And you're right again. We'll have to prove it :)

Sounds like a great idea!

One small thing: It would be great if you can include a sample curl call on the API dashboard screen (with my authentication token). It is not immediately obvious that you cannot copy + paste the token displayed into the curl call directly.

Great feedback - will do!

Do you account for current traffic? How would you do that? That's the single most important element in routing, I think, and, although Waze was in the right track for solving it, it doesn't use well all its data.

No we do not account for traffic. We're not in the business of getting from A to B. We're about optimizing entire fleets (think 1000 orders, 100 vehicles).

Traffic delays are but a small factor, when we can cut 20 obsolete vehicles. We do take average road speed into account though.

I love the design, may I ask who did it?

Also, would have been great if you could drag & drop destinations on the map (I also assume some of your costumers would prefer it that way, rather than an API).

Axiom Zen Collective :) https://www.axiomzen.co/

Site looks great and it was easy to understand the service. However, I went looking for pricing and couldn't find it. My guess is that maybe you are testing now to see what type of demand there might be? I think some type of note on pricing would be helpful (even if it is somethings like "currently free for beta testers but we plan to start charging from x date").

Currently free beta, plan to charge $29/vehicle/month

In one of my previous roles as a software engineer at a local, independent office supply company, this would have been a compelling idea. They ran a small fleet of leased delivery trucks, and employed drivers hourly, so as a company there is an incentive to reduce delivery costs, and the benefits. At $29 per vehicle per month, it seems like optimized routes would pay for itself relatively quickly. You'd need only to shave a few hours and miles off the routes per month to cover the cost, and then anything else is pure cost saving.

However, I think there are some caveats. Drivers were given all items at the beginning of the day with a set of destinations and a deadline. As long as everything was delivered by the end of the day, everyone was happy. Sometimes there were exceptions, and multiple trips needed to be made, or certain customers needed to be given priority at the discretion of the sales rep. Obviously, the drivers aren't interested in optimized routes, as that would cut their pay, and other factors would override the initial route decisions.

Best case scenario, the company is at a point where they are having to turn away customers, and they are able to increase their revenue by adding capacity through optimized routes.

What countries are supported? What will happen if I ask to route between two places I can't drive between? What's the cap on number of vehicles/orders? How long does optimization take? Have you ever driven one of your optimized routes? How does your product compare to Eurobios, Descartes and oracle real time scheduler?

1. Global support 2. The orders that cannot be reached will be returned in an array: unserved 3. No cap. $29/vehicle/month. 4. Hard question; since we're talking about an NP-hard problem: - For ~20 orders, it takes ~1s. - For ~120 orders, an API call (from POST to response) is about ~20s. Just to give you a few pointers of benchmarks. Having said that, given the nature of our algorithms, you may run the algorithm for as long as you have time, to keep searching for better solutions. 5. No I haven't. But I always drive with a GPS :) 6. I used to work as an OR consultant. I haven't used the products you mention, but I have used AIMSS, GAMS, Quintiq, and the like before. My take-away is that those software packages are expensive, bloated, and clunky. They require consultants and IT integrators. And workshops and manuals. Routific is Simple. Straightforward.™

You should include some of these comparisons on the site. You seem to know your market really well and you should expand on the website copy with some of this reaaly valuable information. Well executed BTW. Looks really nice on mobile too.

I think that's a great idea :) thanks!

Looks interesting! Does it work in UK?

We are using OptimoRoute (http://optimoroute.com) for planning our delivery routes. Like Routific it’s also priced per vehicle/month, but it includes a web application.

Yes, it works globally. How are you liking OptimoRoute? Looks neat :) We have a web application and mobile app on our roadmap

Small bug: If you are searching for a route between two places in Europe the map is still focusing on america and not moving to europe, you just see the map pin moving on the right hand side of the map.

Fixed, thanks. Will be deployed in 3 min :)

I'm actually looking for something like this!

No mention of pricing yet, though. Are there plans which aren't per user/truck, such as if we're putting it in our SaaS?

This seems to be what I need. What map data are you using?

OpenStreetMaps

Just what I'm looking for, thanks.

Vancouverites, by the looks of it? :)

Yep :)

The site looks particularly nice, and the service looks like it could be useful.

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