Deliverable Units (Transportable Units)
Deliverable units refer, for example, to the basic quantity, volume or weight of deliveries and collections. For instance, a meal tray, 1m3 of waste, etc. To access deliverable units, click on the “Vehicles” menu > “Deliverable Units”.
The “Deliverable Units List” page will appear. By default, a deliverable unit is set up in the application without a label or any information.
Create a Deliverable Unit
After clicking “Vehicles” > “Deliverable Units”, click the + New Deliverable Unit button. The different fields are explained in the section Modify an Existing Deliverable Unit.
When importing destinations, if the file contains deliverable units, the deliverable units are:
- created if the label of the deliverable unit does not exist,
- updated if the label of the deliverable unit already exists.
Modify a Deliverable Unit
After clicking on “Vehicles” => “Deliverable Units”, click the "Edit" button.
- Label: name of the unit chosen according to the activity; for example, parcel, meal or kg, etc.
- Reference: a unique, free reference
- Default Quantity: number of units delivered by default to each destination. A positive value means a delivery. You can enter negative values, for example in the case of a collection.
- Default Capacity: capacity value for each vehicle. The capacities entered are also taken into account in the vehicle configuration.
- Minimum Load: Minimum quantity set for delivery. This field is optional.
- Overload Coefficient: when a vehicle’s capacity is specified, exceeding it can be:
- not allowed: the application calculates routes within the vehicle’s capacity limits. Stops that would cause an overload are disabled.
- allowed: by clicking yes, a number can be entered; the higher the value, the less the optimisation allows overloading.
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Icon: graphical representation of the deliverable unit, selectable from the FontAwesome library. This icon appears in the route header (if the vehicle is set up and at least one visit on the route is entered) and in each vehicle record to determine the vehicle’s maximum capacity and the relevant transportable entity.
- Default Barcode: This is the code that can be linked to this transportable unit. This information can be displayed and sent to the Mapo Driver mobile app to allow scanning during the mission and thus check the correct code. The code is alphanumeric.
Example of Using the Overload Coefficient
Let’s take, for example, a fleet made up of two vehicles.
Each vehicle has a maximum load capacity of 300kg.
The maximum load volume for each vehicle is 3 m3.
For each visit, a weight of 40kg and a volume of 0.5m3 need to be delivered.
Based on these constraints, you then create deliverable units in kg and m3 to get the following list of transportable units:
Overload coefficient “no”: this means the optimisation does not allow any overload.
Before optimisation, you can see that the maximum load volume of vehicle 2 is higher than its maximum capacity set at 3 m3. This is known as an “over-capacity vehicle” situation. The last destination is accepted in the vehicle’s route.
After optimisation, the vehicle’s route is no longer over capacity. The maximum load volume of 3 m3 is respected. Overloads are penalised. The last destination is disabled to avoid exceeding the load volume.
Overload coefficient “yes”: optimisation allows overloading. Destinations that would cause the vehicle to exceed its capacity are penalised less and may be included. The higher the value, the less the optimisation allows overloading.
The last destination is now kept in the route. However, an over-capacity situation is clearly indicated.
Delete One or More Deliverable Units
After clicking in the “Vehicles” menu > “Deliverable Units”, click the Delete button (1) on the row of the unwanted deliverable unit.
For multiple deletions, tick the unwanted deliverable units to the left of the label (2). Click the Delete selection button (3) at the bottom of the table.
Assign a Capacity to a Vehicle
Within each vehicle (“Vehicles” > “vehicleName”), you can assign a specific capacity and transportable unit.
Next to the heading Capacities, enter the number of deliverable units on the same line as the desired deliverable unit(s).
Set a Quantity per Visit
In the “Destination” menu > “Destinations List” > “Edit” > “Visit” section, set the quantities (1) per visit next to the chosen deliverable unit (2).
Depending on your needs, you can assign Filling/Emptying (3) of the vehicle in the row of the chosen deliverable unit using the dropdown menu in the middle.
Displaying Capacities After Optimisation
When at least one visit quantity (“Destination” > “destinationName”) is entered, and the capacities of a vehicle are set (“Vehicle” > “vehicleName”), the deliverable units are shown in the route headers. Capacities are displayed next to the chosen icon (see explanations of route header icons in the “Zoning Management” section “List of Map and Route Panel Icons”).
Include (or Not) Deliverable Units in the Optimisation Calculation
From the “Plans” page, when launching optimisation (click on ), a popup will open.
The “Deliverable Units” section offers the option to “Allow [or not] load overrun” for the defined deliverable unit.
- By default, “no”, the optimisation takes into account the quantities of deliverable units and the vehicle capacities,
- “Ignore” allows you to disregard the quantities of deliverable units and vehicle capacities; overruns are shown in red.