ignore depots and pickups in the 'maxTransportPointCountPerT

[i.kobeissy]

hello

in the release history of the xTour 1.26.0.4 we have the following
- Improvement: Added option to ignore depots and pickups in the 'maxTransportPointCountPerTour' check.

how can we use this option ? i can't find anything else about it, and is it still available in the xTour 1.28 cz in the 1.28 version we have a new option added "mergeTransportPointCountPerSite" and this option doesn't ignore the depots

so basically my question is : is there a way to merge transport point count per site and ignoring the depots using the xTour 1.28 ?

Regards

[Bernd Welter]

Hi,

the key you mentioned refers to the touropt.ini file and it's switch IgnoreDepotAndAForMaxAccumulatedStopCount=FALSE
So this is not an API parameter but a mechanism to put the server in a complete new state.

Does this answer your question?

Bet regards,
Bernd

[RGomez]

the key you mentioned refers to the touropt.ini file and it's switch IgnoreDepotAndAForMaxAccumulatedStopCount=FALSE
So this is not an API parameter but a mechanism to put the server in a complete new state.

In addition to Kobeissy's question and your answer, I rise a supplementary doubt: Could it be possible to limit the total number of Pickup and Delivery transport points separatelly? i.e. set a limit in number of pickup points (no matter how many delivery points) and/or vice versa (limitting the number of delivery points no matter how many pickup points). My understanding is that 'maxTransportPointCountPerTour' counts both, pickups AND deliveries sites in total.

My concernes are in a 'per request' parameter (i.e. API), not a global parameter at server level. If so, is it available (or is it going to be) in xTour v1.x or v2.x ?

Thanks.

[Bernd Welter]

Hello Roberto,

afaik there's no such parameter at the moment but it will be a pleasure to forward your recommendation to DEV.
Could you explain more in detail what usecase story you'd like to satisfy with such a parameter?

If I am correct this could be a restriction for xTour2 but not for xTour1.

Best regards,
Bernd

[Bernd Welter]

Feedback from DEV:
- not possible in xTour1
- won't come in xTour1
- usecase required: thenI can create a task in Jira

[RGomez]

Hi again.

Customer's scenario:

Due to certain orders and transport characteristics, the customer finds the following -realistic- tours:
- Loading(pickup) is done in 1 or 2 (rarelly but possible 3) sites in a limited area (depots are comparativelly nearby with respect to where customers are).
- Most driving is done overnight to a faraway region.
- Deliveries are done in (again) a limited area (clients are nearby one each other with respect to depots).

In this kind of tours, "real-live" (a.k.a. "user experience") shows that it is not realistic to have more than 4 (maybe 5) deliveries points for a single tour.

The existing tools in xTour (that is the "maxTransportPointCountPerTour" parameter) does not fullfill this limit: By setting a value of, lets say, "8" (to be able to cover 3 pickups + 5 deliveries), xTour can also give as valid tours with 1 pickup + 7 deliveries, or 5 pickups + 3 deliveries, witch are not valid for the customer needs.

Probably by using some other tools available to xTour (like openning hours, waiting times, distance, rest periods, ...) we can drive xServer to give more 'realistic' results. But in this scenario it is not easy nor acurate to deal with some of such these parameters (from the orders point of view). So for the user, it is more acurate and easy (according to real experience) to limit the number of stops (by kind: load and unload).

This, in global, can be seen as a sort of 'compacity' for both, pickups and deliveries, but limitting the number of transport point at each end.

Hope this help you better understand the usercase.

I keep the point that v1 won't cover this, but maybe v2 could do it in the future.

Regards.

[Frank Radaschewski]

Hi,

If I understand the use case correctly, there might already be a solution with xServer 2.
In the following Integration Sample we present a similar use case:

https://xserver2-dashboard.cloud.ptvgro ... g%7C_____4

If you model the collection points as depots and the delivery points as customers, then you can enter the value 1 per order in a free quantity. In the corresponding capacity of the vehicle, you then specify the maximum number of customers.
However, you can only specify one order per customer. If necessary you have to aggregate them before.

You cannot limit the number of depots. This should hopefully not be a problem.

Regards,
Frank

[RGomez]

Hi,

If you model the collection points as depots and the delivery points as customers, then you can enter the value 1 per order in a free quantity. In the corresponding capacity of the vehicle, you then specify the maximum number of customers.
However, you can only specify one order per customer. If necessary you have to aggregate them before.

Thanks Frank for your help.
Effectivelly, the use case you show explains the customer's operative. I've already thought of using a 'dummy quantity' of 1 together with a vehicle capacity to do so. However one of the key points in this flow is the fact that a customer is served goods comming from +1 depo (hence, different orders, different suppliers, ....). A 'logical' pre-aggregation of orders is not an easy task (i.e. we delegate in xTour for dealings with some of the constraints: product incompatibility,equipements, openning times, ....). A 'physical pre-aggregation' drives us to a different flow/scenario.

Regards
Roberto.

[Frank Radaschewski]

Okay, then I'm afraid it doesn't work that way.
We have not yet implemented the limitation of stops per trip in xServer2.
But we can certainly consider that we can limit the number of stops per trip separately for depots and customers.
The feature is currently on our road map but is not yet scheduled for a fixed date.