NextBillion.ai Product Bytes — Q4 2024

As we step into 2025, we’re excited to share the product highlights of our Q4 2024 journey. From launching new products to refining existing features, this quarter has been all about precision and efficiency.

On one hand, NextBillion.ai launched the Dispatch APIs Suite, Route Report API, and Places APIs, while on the other, we equally focused on enhancing the Route Optimization API, Clustering API, and more—constantly upgrading our solutions to deliver even greater value.

Here’s a detailed overview of these updates and how they contribute to delivering the promised value.

MapFusion Dispatch APIs Suite

The new Dispatch APIs seamlessly integrate with the NextBillion.ai Driver app to enhance operational efficiency. They allow you to generate routes from any source without relying on the NextBillion.ai Route Planner. With the Dispatch APIs, dispatchers can send these routes directly to the NextBillion.ai Driver app. This streamlined process ensures flexibility and precision in managing your fleet.

The team have launched two powerful dispatch API products powered by MapFusion:  Route Dispatch API and Documents API, designed to streamline and scale the dispatch process. 

Route Dispatch API

The Route Dispatch API enables dispatchers to send planned routes and detailed stop information directly to drivers via email. It helps streamline communication, ensuring that drivers have all the necessary route details, including distances, expected arrival times, and any specific instructions for each stop.

This improves operational efficiency by ensuring real-time updates and better coordination between logistics teams and drivers. The API simplifies fleet management, optimizing the dispatch process, and contributing to more timely and accurate deliveries.

With this, you can expect:

1. Streamlined Communication
2. Enhanced Operational Efficiency
3. Improved Delivery Operations

Read more about it here.

Documents API

The Documents API allows businesses to create custom templates for collecting essential data during route execution, such as proof of delivery or task completion. These templates can include different fields and validation rules to ensure data integrity.

By linking these templates to specific routes, drivers can complete required forms directly through their app at each step, streamlining documentation and ensuring real-time, accurate data collection. This improves operational efficiency and helps maintain proper tracking and reporting.

With this, you can expect:

1. Streamlined Data Collection
2. Enhanced Driver Experience
3. Improved Efficiency 

We are committed to continuously enhancing these APIs to ensure seamless integration with the Route Optimization API and the rest of the Mapfusion platform. Our roadmap includes adding more features to these APIs and introducing new ones to this suite in the future, further empowering your operations with advanced capabilities.  For more details, visit the documentation.

Snowflake Integration

We are excited to announce that we’ve been officially listed on Snowflake!

With this integration, you can now seamlessly access NextBillion.ai APIs directly through your Snowflake subscription. Plan routes, geocode addresses, and enrich your workflows with geospatial data—whether for real-time or batch queries—all within the Snowflake ecosystem.

The integration plays a crucial role in optimizing post-trip data management by seamlessly collecting, storing, and organizing the data within the Snowflake databases. 

It empowers businesses to generate detailed reports, perform in-depth analyses, and gain actionable insights, enabling better decision-making and operational efficiency.

For more details, check out the app on Snowflake Marketplace.

Newly Launched APIs

Route Report API

NextBillion.ai’s Route Report API provides detailed insights into a trip by generating comprehensive reports based on the route geometry. It breaks down key metrics such as distance, duration, road types, tolls, bridges, tunnels, and more. 

This tool is invaluable for comparing routes, calculating drive mileage, and estimating associated metrics, making it an essential feature for optimizing logistics operations. Its ability to analyze various road conditions and segments ensures better decision-making and more efficient route planning.

With this, you can expect:

1. Tax compliance
2. Post-trip route analysis
3. Mileage reporting

Excited to explore more about this feature? Read the detailed documentation here. 

Batch Routing API

The Batch Routing API enables logistics providers to submit multiple routing requests at once, improving processing efficiency. It currently supports only Isochrone API batch processing, which allows for faster, scalable route calculations. This feature is ideal for businesses that need to manage high volumes of deliveries or complex routing tasks, optimizing time and resources while ensuring quick, accurate results.

With the ability to process up to 20 individual requests in a single batch, it helps optimize fleet management by reducing the time and resources spent on individual API requests. 

With this, you can expect:

1. Improved Efficiency
2. Cost Savings
3. Scalability 

Ready to create batches to accommodate multiple requests in one API call? Read the “how” here. 

Structured Geocode API

The Structured Geocode API allows users to search for precise locations using a structured address format, including components like country, city, postal code, street, and house number. This helps ensure accurate geolocation results, particularly for address-based queries.

It is particularly useful for applications that need to pinpoint locations without retrieving additional information, such as points of interest. The API focuses on providing detailed, address-specific geocoding to streamline location-based tasks.

Get more details here.

Place Lookup API

The Place Lookup API allows users to retrieve detailed information about a location or point of interest (POI) using its unique identifier. It provides complete postal address details along with relevant data such as coordinates, access points, and contact information.

This feature is valuable for businesses that need to quickly access comprehensive location data for route planning, delivery, or service management. It helps ensure accurate and efficient location-based operations.

With this, you can expect:

1.  Comprehensive Location Data
2. Enhanced Route and Service Planning
3. Streamlined Operations

Know more about this launch here. 

As we celebrate our new launches, we’re equally thrilled to share some exciting updates to our existing features. These enhancements are designed to improve the precision, scalability, and efficiency of our solutions, providing even more value to our customers.

Feature Updates – What’s New and Improved!

We’ve improved several features to enhance the  routing experience of our users, including:

• Route Optimization API
  • Routing Profiles: Define multiple routing profiles in a single route optimization input to plan seamlessly for diverse fleets. Customize profiles for different truck types, dimensions, load capacities, and hazmat-specific constraints—all in one process. A detailed API example can be found here
  • Max Working Time: Set a total working time for a vehicle to align with operational constraints. For example, with shift timings of 10 AM–10 PM, limit the driver’s working hours to a maximum of 6 hours within the shift.

• Navigation APIs & SDKs
  • Toll Distance: The Route Report API now includes the toll_distance feature, which returns the total distance (in km) traveled on toll roads for a given route.
  • Support for Premium Features: The platform now supports bicycle and motorbike modes, allowing for optimized route generation tailored to these specific vehicles. Additionally, the taxi lanes feature ensures the use of dedicated taxi lanes when generating routes, optimizing travel time between specified points.

• Clustering API: 
  • Support for text IDs in jobs now allows users to assign custom identifiers when specifying jobs, moving beyond the limitation of numerical IDs.

Other Important Updates

NextBillion.ai Cloud Console

Shareable Playground Update Alert

Generate a publicly shareable URL for solutions created using any product in the NCC Playground. This update allows users without NCC access to easily visualize and interact with the route planner solution.

Enhanced Billable Entity Management

Easily select a billable entity linked to your account, with each entity having unique keys, usage tracking, product access, and invoicing. Ideal for accounts requiring visibility and administrative control at the project level—whether for regional entities, departments, or teams.

NextBillion.ai Driver App

Seamless Proof of Delivery Submission

The Driver app now includes a workflow to add proof of delivery or completion details to a document linked to a task. Drivers can effortlessly record required information to mark tasks as complete.

Roadmap for Q1 2025

We’re excited to introduce our upcoming faster Route Optimization API, designed to deliver faster and more efficient route planning. This update will enhance real-time optimization, helping businesses streamline logistics and improve operational efficiency. 

In summary, these product updates mark a significant step forward in enhancing route planning, providing logistics businesses with more control and flexibility. Features like customizable routing profiles, toll distance tracking, and the addition of premium options for various vehicle modes empower users to streamline operations and reduce costs.

As we continue to innovate, these improvements ensure NextBillion.ai users  can stay ahead of the curve, with smarter, more efficient solutions that meet their dynamic needs. Stay tuned for future updates as we strive to deliver even greater value!