Businesses that depend on fleets have to navigate last minute changes, unforeseen delays, and other variables that inevitably pop up, to meet growing customer expectations for prompt arrival or reliable delivery. These challenges require a routing solution that allows you to meet regulations, maximize efficiency for vehicles, and keep drivers satisfied with the demands of their jobs.
Today we’re excited to announce the general availability of the Google Maps Platform Route Optimization API. Formerly known as Cloud Fleet Routing, Route Optimization is designed to help developers improve operational efficiency, increase end-customer and driver satisfaction, and help organizations meet sustainability goals.
Assign tasks and routes to your fleet
Route Optimization allows you to assign tasks and plan multi-stop routes for your fleet of one or more vehicles, while meeting your objectives and constraints. It is built to support complex itineraries, handle dynamic road conditions, and scale with your organization across geographic areas.
Customers already using Route Optimization have seen a significant direct impact on their business operations. Skroutz, the leading ecommerce platform in Greece, integrated Google Maps Platform to improve its delivery service Skroutz Last Mile. Skroutz generated smarter route plans to improve on-time delivery reliability, which increased from 93% to 98.5%, and driver throughput growing 10%.
Cloud Fleet Routing (now Route Optimization API) is extremely versatile. You have full control over details like how many drivers you are using, how many tasks, and variable driving speeds, all of which were challenging with the previous system. We can account for pretty much all the constraints and optimize for our key metrics. Director of Strategy, Skroutz Last Mile
Solving fleet challenges efficiently and at scale
Route Optimization gives you the flexibility to address unique business goals and a variety of cost and constraint parameters. You can optimize for objectives such as travel efficiency measured in travel time and distance, on time arrivals per defined time window, minimizing vehicle utilization, and balancing workloads across drivers. You can also use Route Optimization to respond to last minute changes such as drivers running late, new orders coming in, customers cancellations, and reoptimizing plans in real time.
Route Optimization is powered by world-class Operation Research algorithms running on Google infrastructure, designed and tested to solve large, complex vehicle routing problems, and generate efficient solutions performantly and at scale. It is natively integrated with Google Maps routing and geolocation data, which serves as the most accurate inputs to optimization, and makes it easier for developers to deploy than off-the-shelf solvers with separate mapping services.
Plan more efficient routes and complete tasks using Route Optimization.
Meeting a variety of business needs
Route Optimization supports organizations that rely on mobility, efficiency and on-time delivery, including:
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Logistics Operators: Optimize the assignments of all next-day shipments, providing a route for each shipment that optimizes for distance and time efficiency, cost saving, on time delivery, and driver and end customer satisfaction
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Medical Services: Map health providers to appointments, improving the efficiency of the routes for each provider across their day
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Field Service Management: Plan the optimal sequence for technician's service appointments, and re-optimize when condition changes occur, such as en route delays
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On Demand Delivery: Businesses can use Route Optimization for real-time dispatch to choose the best available driver to pick up new orders, insert them efficiently into their route, and deliver on time
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E-commerce Delivery: As expectations rise and e-commerce customers expect the nearly real-time of on-demand services, e-commerce brands are developing their own fleets and delivery operations
Google Maps Platform partners like Accenture and Woolpert are adept in deploying Route Optimization to solve developers’ constraints and objectives. Accenture specifically has used Route Optimization to solve complex route planning problems for major logistics companies.
Working closely with our customers and Google Maps Platform, we expect Route Optimization API to deliver the capabilities and the outcomes expected by world-class logistics companies. Route Optimization is a critical building block in our Accenture Google Logistics Optimization Platform (AGLOP) that we bring to these customers, and has brought significant value in their digital transformation, including efficiency, productivity, customer satisfaction, and sustainability. We’re excited about this continued partnership. Managing Director, Accenture Technology, Intelligent Software Engineering Services
Get started
Route Optimization enables businesses to create more accurate and optimal route plans for your fleet, saving you money and increasing customer and driver satisfaction. To learn more about the new Route Optimization API, visit our developer documentation.
