PTV Logistics Product Forum

Hi there,

in the context of Routing we sometimes have to consider special means of transport. I'd like to collect some recurring topics here in this article - maybe this helps on top of the technical concept: combined transport (strongly recommended!)

• A ferry or piggy back transport does not consider a real timetable nor do we know the exact time for the transfer. A rough rule of thumb is described in this article
• This might limit the expectation as the output is sufficient for a rough geometry / distance / traveltime - but it won't reflect real schedules.
• Furthermore we do not know tarrifs of the company in charge of a combined transport.
• Think positive: what we do know is what kind of vehicles are allowed on a ferry (CAR/VAN/TRUCK)
• If you want to enforce the routing API to use a specific connection you may have to use the Combined transport waypoints as described in concepts: Waypoints
• A combined transport object is supposed to be identified via a Data Api.getCombinedTransport call. This helps to choose a proper connection for a Combined Transport waypoint.
• The Data Api also supports CombinedTransport objects to be forbidden (createCustomRoadAttributeScenario).

If you have more questions let us know....
Bernd

PS: some of you might have heard of xIntermodal - which supported real timetables and more. Currently (April 2026) we do not support this usecase in PTV Developer.