Parameter list
Basic definitions
- Planning period
- A period over which you plan location visits. To set a period, specify the start date and the number of days.
- Employee
- A mobile employee who visits locations with a certain regularity. They may travel on foot, by car, or by public transport. During planning, you can specify a common work schedule for all employees and, if needed, tailor it to specific employees by adjusting their working and non-working days, working hours, and other parameters.
- Location
- Points handled by a mobile employee (store, office, and others). The frequency of visits, whether they are required or not, handling time, and other parameters are specified for each location.
- Visit
- An employee's arrival to a location that needs to be handled. An employee may visit one location multiple times within a planning period.
- Route
- A sequence of visits to locations by an employee, with the indication of the estimated time of arrival, handling time, and other parameters. An employee may have multiple routes planned within a planning period.
Prerequisites for planning
If you need to solve a Calendar Planning task, the source data must contain a number of mandatory parameters.
If you plan routes using an Excel file, it must contain the following sheets:
locations
: Parameters of locations that mobile employees visit.employees
: Parameters of mobile employees.working_days
: Employees' work schedule.options
: Route planning parameters.
An Excel file may also contain other sheets (for example, visits
with the parameters of location visits).
If you plan routes via the API, the request must contain the following objects:
locations
: Parameters of locations that mobile employees visit.employees
: Parameters of mobile employees.employee.working_days
: The employee's work schedule.options
: Route planning parameters.
A request may also contain other objects (for example, location.visits
with location visit parameters).
The required parameters are indicated in the description below.
Location parameters
Location parameters are set on the locations
sheet in Excel or in the locations
object in the API request.
Basic parameters
Parameter |
Description |
Required |
|
Location ID. Learn more |
Yes |
|
Location name. Learn more |
No |
|
Location description. Learn more |
No |
|
Additional location ID. Learn more |
No |
|
Additional information about the location. Learn more |
No |
|
Location address. Learn more |
No |
|
Phone number. Learn more |
No |
|
Location coordinates: latitude and longitude. Learn more |
Yes |
|
Location type. Learn more |
Yes |
|
Duration of a location visit in seconds. Learn more |
Yes |
Time windows
Parameter |
Description |
Required |
|
Time window to visit the location in The |
No |
|
Array of time windows for visiting the location. The |
No |
|
Hard time window to visit the location in |
No |
|
Penalties for violating the time window for visiting the location: a fixed penalty for an instance of violation and a penalty for each minute of violation. We recommend setting the same value for |
No |
|
Penalties for early arrival at the location: a fixed penalty for an instance of violation and a penalty for each minute of violation. Learn more |
No |
|
Penalties for late arrival at the location: a fixed penalty for an instance of violation and a penalty for each minute of violation. Learn more |
No |
Visit conditions
Parameter |
Description |
Required |
|
Date of the last visit to the location before the start of planning. Learn more |
No |
|
Required number of visits to the location over the planning period. Learn more |
Yes |
|
Penalty for violating the |
No |
|
Minimum and maximum number of days between visits. Learn more |
No |
|
Penalty for violating the |
No |
|
Penalty for violating the |
No |
|
Fixed penalty if the location hasn't been visited once. Default value: 1,000,000. Learn more |
No |
|
List of days of the week on which you can visit the location. Learn more |
No |
|
List of days of the week on which you must visit the location. Learn more |
No |
|
List of days of the week on which you mustn't visit the location. Learn more |
No |
|
List of days of the week on which it's preferable to visit the location. Learn more |
No |
|
Penalty for visiting the location on any day other than those specified in |
No |
|
Maximum number of employees who can visit the location over the planning period. Learn more |
No |
|
Penalty for violating the |
No |
|
Location visit priority. Learn more |
No |
Cost
Parameter |
Description |
Required |
|
Fixed cost if more than one employee has visited the location and cost for each additional employee visiting the location. Learn more |
No |
Tags and location types
Parameter |
Description |
Required |
|
List of tags that an employee must have to handle this location. Learn more |
No |
|
Array of tags that an employee doesn't necessarily need to have to handle this location, but having them affects the route cost. Learn more |
No |
|
List of characteristics that determine incompatibility of locations (it's impossible to visit them within one route). Learn more |
No |
Additional parameters
Parameter |
Description |
Required |
|
Additional numeric attribute of the location, such as employee's remuneration for visiting the location. It can be used to calculate the route cost. |
No |
|
IDs of companies with access to information about planned visits to the location. |
No |
|
Flag indicating that the location is taken into account when planning high-density routes. Possible values: |
No |
Visits
Visit types are set on the visits
sheet in Excel or in the locations.visits
array in the API request.
Parameter |
Description |
Required |
|
When planning via Excel, you need to specify the ID of the location ( When planning routes via the API, specify the unique ID of the type of visit: |
Yes for Excel, no for the API |
|
Visit name (type). Learn more |
No |
|
Handling time for visits of this type. Learn more |
Yes |
|
Penalty for skipping a visit of this type. Learn more |
No |
|
Days on which visits of this type are allowed. Learn more |
No |
|
Days on which visits of this type are preferred. Learn more |
No |
|
Days on which visits of this type are prohibited. Learn more |
No |
Employees and vehicles
Parameters that specify the working conditions of employees and vehicle characteristics are set on the employees
sheet in Excel or in the employees
object in the API request.
Basic parameters
Parameter |
Description |
Required |
|
Employee or vehicle ID. All such IDs within a task must be unique and have the same type: integer or string. Learn more |
Yes |
|
Additional number of an employee or vehicle. Learn more |
No |
|
Employee's GPS tracker number. Learn more |
No |
|
Employee's phone number. Learn more |
No |
|
Transportation method. This parameter has a higher priority than |
No |
|
Travel time adjustment factor for fast or slow transportation methods. Default value: 1. |
No |
|
Coefficient for the adjustment of handling time for more or less qualified employees. Default value: 1. Learn more |
No |
Tags, geofences, and incompatibility of locations for employees
Parameter |
Description |
Required |
|
List of tags set for the employee or vehicle that are compatible with the tags set for the location (regular expressions of the extended POSIX standard are used). Learn more |
No |
|
List of tags set for the employee or vehicle that are incompatible with the tags of the location (regular expressions of the extended POSIX standard are used). Learn more |
No |
|
List of geofences where the employee can or can't visit locations. Learn more |
No |
|
Array of geofences where visiting results in a penalty or bonus. Learn more |
No |
|
Array where each element determines a list of geofences that the employee mustn't visit within one route. Learn more |
No |
|
Array where each element determines a set of incompatible location characteristics for the employee. Incompatible locations can't be visited within one route. Learn more |
No |
Route planning parameters
Parameter |
Description |
Required |
|
ID of the location where the employee will start their first route per day; finish their last route per day. Learn more |
No |
|
Maximum number of employee routes per day. Default value: 1. Learn more |
No |
|
Maximum distance (in meters) between neighboring locations in a route; maximum travel duration (in seconds) between neighboring locations in a route. Learn more |
No |
|
Factor that applies when the cost of mileage between start/end route locations on neighboring days is added to the route cost. Default value: 0. Learn more |
No |
|
Factor that applies when the cost of travel duration between start/end route locations on neighboring days is added to the route cost. Default value: 0. Learn more |
No |
|
Factor that applies when the cost of the first segment of each route is added to the route cost. Default value: 0. Learn more |
No |
|
ID of the location whose proximity determines |
No |
|
Employee's route density. Learn more |
No |
|
Flag indicating on-foot sections on public transport routes. Learn more |
No |
|
Cost of using public transport. Learn more |
No |
Cost of work
Parameter |
Description |
Required |
|
Fixed cost of starting a route. By default, 3000 units. Learn more |
No |
|
Cost of employee's work (or vehicle use) per kilometer. By default, 8 units. Learn more |
No |
|
Cost of employee's work (or vehicle use) per hour. By default, 100 units. Learn more |
No |
|
Cost of visiting one location. The default is 0. Learn more |
No |
|
Cost of completing one route. The default is 0. Learn more |
No |
|
Cost of completing all routes. The default is 0. Learn more |
No |
|
Cost of one hour of wait time between visits. The default is 0. Learn more |
No |
Payouts to employees
Parameter |
Description |
Required |
|
Fixed payout for starting a route. By default, 3000 units. Learn more |
No |
|
Payout to the employee per kilometer traveled. By default, 8 units. Learn more |
No |
|
Payout to the employee per hour. By default, 100 units. Learn more |
No |
|
Payout for visiting one location. The default is 0. Learn more |
No |
|
Payout for completing one route. The default is 0. Learn more |
No |
|
Payout for completing all routes. The default is 0. Learn more |
No |
|
Payout for one hour of wait time between visits. The default is 0. Learn more |
No |
Leave
Parameter |
Description |
Required |
|
No |
Employees' work schedule
Parameters that specify the employees' work schedule are set on the working_days
sheet in Excel or in the employees.working_days
array in the API request. Each row on the Excel sheet or each array element corresponds to a work schedule for one working day type (regular, shortened, pre-holiday, and so on).
Parameter |
Description |
Required |
|
When planning routes via Excel, specify the ID of the employee ( When planning routes from the API, specify the unique work schedule ID. |
Yes for Excel, no for the API |
|
List of employee's working days. Learn more |
Yes |
|
Start of the working day. Learn more |
Yes |
|
End of the working day. Learn more |
No |
|
Maximum allowable time for the end of a working day. Learn more |
No |
|
Maximum duration of a working day in seconds; hard limit on the maximum duration of a working day in seconds. Learn more |
No |
|
Maximum distance (mileage) covered by the employee during the working day, in kilometers. |
No |
|
Cost of employee's work. Learn more |
No |
|
Maximum number of stops per day. Learn more |
No |
|
Fixed penalties for an instance and for every minute of a time window violation, as well as for ending the work day late. Learn more |
No |
|
Fixed penalties for an instance of violation and for each extra stop made during the day. Learn more |
No |
|
Penalty for exceeding the maximum mileage during the day. |
No |
Global options
Global options determine route planning parameters. They are set on the options
sheet in Excel or in the options
object in the API request.
Location and employee parameters have priority over similar global parameters.
Parameters
Parameter |
Description |
Required |
|
Start date of the planning period. Learn more |
Yes |
|
Number of days within the planning period. Learn more |
Yes |
|
Planning time zone. Learn more |
Yes |
|
Possibility of visiting the same location by different employees on different days. Possible values: |
No |
|
Avoid toll roads if possible (only for |
No |
|
If the probability of late arrival at a location is greater than or equal to the specified value, the location is factored in in the |
No |
|
Time and distance between starting points of the routes on neighboring days. Learn more |
No |
|
Time and distance between end points of the routes on neighboring days. Learn more |
No |
|
All routes specified in |
No |
|
Ignore geofence-related options for locations and employees. Possible values: |
No |
|
Array where each element determines a set of incompatible location characteristics. Incompatible locations can't be visited within one route. Learn more |
No |
|
Array where each element determines a list of geofences that an employee mustn't visit within one run. |
No |
|
Factor for planning visits to priority locations on earlier days. Learn more |
No |
|
Matrix router used for route planning. Possible values: |
No |
|
Route minimization criterion. Possible values: |
No |
|
Minimize the probability of delays by avoiding routes where the estimated time of arrival is close to the end of the time window. Possible values: |
No |
|
Flag for penalizing late arrivals or late handling end time. Possible values: |
No |
|
Use of post-optimization. Possible values: |
No |
|
Route density. Learn more |
No |
|
Default transportation method for employees. Default value: |
No |
|
Maximum time to solve a planning task, in seconds. Learn more |
No |
|
Number of working days per week. It can't be used together with |
No |
|
Number of working and non-working days in a week. |
No |
|
Penalties for visiting addresses with multiple locations. Default value: |
No |
Geofences
Geofences used when planning routes are set in the zones
object in the API request. Geofences aren't set in Excel.
The zones
object isn't required in the API request. However, in case you do use it, you must specify both parameters in each array element.
Parameter |
Description |
Required |
|
Unique geofence ID. Learn more |
Yes* |
|
Coordinates of the points that are vertices of a geofence. Learn more |
Yes* |
* The parameter is required only if you use the zones
object.