NextBillion.ai Product Bytes — Q3 2024

In the third quarter of 2024, NextBillion.ai launched new products — Asynchronous Distance Matrix API and Geotab Route Optimization Integration. We added new optimization constraints around cost, regulation compliance, and safety to the Route Optimization API to provide real-world control to businesses to plan routes.

The Live Tracking API was upgraded to include trip subscription and management features. We added an SDK usage report to the NextBillion.ai Cloud Console (NCC) and incorporated two new telematics integrations— Geotab and Motive.

Read about these updates and how users stand to benefit from them below.

New Product Launches

Asynchronous Distance Matrix API

Our Asynchronous Distance Matrix API computes ETAs and distances between various origins and destinations. This could be applied to one-to-many or many-to-many scenarios.

The result is returned asynchronously here—you need to make a new call to get the result of a previously submitted call.

This API has two versions— Fast and Flexible. The Fast version will return the distances and ETAs between all combinations of specified origin and destination pairs for the given driving mode. On the other hand, the Flexible version allows users to include a few additional parameters, such as a preference for the shortest or the fastest route type, a departure time for the service to use the traffic conditions, and truck-specific constraints.

For both these versions, NextBillion.ai allows a default limit of 4000 * 4000 Origin and Destination sets.

Head over to our documentation to learn more about Asynchronous Distance Matrix API.

Geotab Route Optimization Integration

NextBillion.ai is now available on the Geotab marketplace, allowing users to plan complex multi-vehicle routes before dispatching to Geotab. This will let users ensure efficient and optimized route management.

This integration offers key benefits, such as reduced fuel consumption, superior route planning, improved overall delivery performance, and minimized vehicle wear and tear. It also addresses pain points like high operational costs, inefficiencies in route planning, and the need for real-time adjustments, which helps enhance customer satisfaction and fleet efficiency.

Learn how Geotab Route Optimization with NextBillion’s API delivers those benefits.

Route Optimization API

Alternative Capacities

Our Route Optimization Flexible API now provides alternative capacity settings to use a vehicle’s cargo space by choosing the most efficient load configurations. This is especially handy for businesses in industries like retail deliveries, e-commerce, and logistics providers.

See a detailed example illustrating the alternative capacities feature. 

Max Stops

Our Route Optimization API now supports the ‘max_stops’ feature, which allows you to limit the number of stops a vehicle can make while on a trip. If there are additional tasks, they will usually be assigned to other vehicles. If there are no available vehicles, the tasks will remain unassigned.

Per Order Costs

Now, you can specify the cost incurred for fulfilling each order at the vehicle level. With the per_order cost feature, the optimizer will suggest a route plan with a lower cost. It will either assign more tasks to the vehicles with lower per_order costs or optimize the routes so that the overall cost of the solution is minimized.

Revenue Per Task

With the ‘revenue’ feature, you can specify the revenue earned by fulfilling specific tasks. The optimizer will then compare the cost incurred while fulfilling the task. If the cost exceeds the revenue earned, the task will remain unassigned. A common complaint for the trucking industry is dead miles. Deadhead miles are the number of miles a vehicle travels with an empty load and have an impact on greenhouse gas emissions and traffic congestion.

Thanks to this new update, you can now optimize your route planning process to reduce the number of dead miles for your fleet.

Outsourcing Cost

Route Optimization API now also supports the outsourcing cost feature, which can be used to specify a cost incurred if a task is outsourced to a third party. If a task isn’t fulfilled, the outsourcing cost will be added to the overall cost of the solution.

This feature will help you understand the total cost incurred when a plan gets implemented— which includes the cost of fulfilling all assigned tasks and outsourcing all the unfulfilled tasks.

Service Time for HOS

In the driver’s layover configuration, you can now include the service time spent on fulfilling tasks in the calculations to determine the working and subsequent break hours. Previously, NextBillion.ai only accounted for the driving time, but with this new update, companies can further streamline their operations while maintaining high productivity levels.

Early Arrival

Our Route Optimization API now supports the option to choose where a driver waits if the next task’s time_window is yet to start. The users can either have the drivers wait after reaching the task’s location whose time_window hasn’t started yet or wait at the previous task location instead. This feature can easily help you cut down on transportation costs. It also leads to increased operational flexibility as the user’s ability to adapt to changing conditions in delivery operations is greatly improved.

Avoid Bounding Box

Our Route Optimization API now allows you to avoid all routes passing through a bounding box. Since this is a hard filter, an error gets returned if the bounding box blocks all possible routes between the origin and destination.

Avoid Left/Right Turns

The Route Optimization API now offers you new options to avoid right or left turns in the optimized solution, providing you with more constraint options to chart out the optimized route to your liking.

Learn more about the new route optimization constraints with easy-to-follow API Tutorials.

Hours of Service (HOS) Compliant Routes

You can use Directions API’s new Driver Scheduling feature to specify the continuous drive times, after which the driver has to take a mandatory break. You must specify the drive times and the drivers’ subsequent break durations. The Directions API will then consider the break durations and return the updated ETAs to reach the following destination. This new feature further helps you integrate HOS compliance into your route planning process.

Other Important Updates

Live Tracking with Driver App

The NextBillion.ai Driver App now allows you to track your driver’s location in real-time, helping you streamline deliveries and simplify routes. With the Driver App, you will now have all the information you need to ensure smooth deliveries every time — scheduled times to customer contacts, special contacts, to name a few.

Check out our blog post to better understand the key features of the NextBillion.ai Driver App.

Trip Management on Live Tracking API & SDKs

We added two new features to our Live Tracking API this quarter — Trip Subscription and Trip Management. Keep reading to see how these features can help you streamline route planning.

Trip Subscription

This feature lets you get regular real-time updates as a subscribed trip progresses. To subscribe, users need to connect to a web-socket server. Once the connection gets established, you can send the required action message to the web socket. Usually, the action message will contain information about the type of action to perform along with the required details to implement the action.

Check out a detailed example to understand the complete lifecycle of a subscription.

Trip Management

Trip Tracking is a powerful module designed for applications that need to track drivers’ routes in real time. By integrating the SDKs into your application, you can manage and record a driver’s entire journey from start to finish.

The trip feature in the Tracking SDK lets you manage and monitor trips for your assets. This feature provides functionality for starting, deleting, updating, and ending trips, as well as retrieving trip details and summaries.

Check out our documentation on implementing trip-tracking for iOS and Android devices.

SDK Usage Reports

We also added the SDK usage report to NextBillion.ai Cloud Console. Just fire up your console and click on the ‘View Usage’ option available under Getting Started. You can also choose the Usage option available under API & Services. On the Usage page, you can click on SDK Usage and select the duration of usage to display the results.

By monitoring the usage, you can easily pinpoint the performance bottlenecks and optimize the performance to ensure a smooth user experience.

You can also download the CSV for the report you generated.

Check out NCC FAQs for more information.

Telematics Integrations

We have further expanded our integrations with leading telematics platforms by incorporating compatibility with Motive and Geotab. These new integrations complement our existing integration with Samsara, enhancing connectivity across a broader range of telematics solutions. These integrations can be useful for advanced fleet route planning. They allow customers to gain a strategic advantage over their competitors through optimized multi-vehicle delivery routes and higher levels of operational excellence.

Check out a detailed example to better understand how to integrate Motive with NextBillion.ai.

In The Pipeline: Upcoming Features and Enhancements

Our team is working on various exciting updates for Q4’ 2024.

We will add a new map editor app and a publicly shareable playground to NextBillion.ai’s Cloud Console. In Fleet Hub, customers would be able to create document templates and collect documents on job completion for each route.

We will introduce weekly planning, vehicle profiles, and max working time for Route Optimization API for each driver to further enhance operational efficiency.

We will also be offering a new API to customers: the Dispatch API.

Stay tuned for more NextBillion.ai updates as we evolve to meet your needs.