Vehicle fleet routing system

Abstract

In one embodiment, a system for routing vehicles in a vehicle fleet includes a location assignment module comprising computer hardware and a routing module. The location assignment module can be configured to iteratively: determine whether quotas are met for a plurality of territories based at least on locations assigned to individual territories of the plurality of territories, and in response to determining that the quota is unmet for one or more individual territories, assign one or more additional locations to the one or more individual territories having unmet quotas based at least on a proximity of the one or more additional locations to a different reference location associated with each of the one or more individual territories having unmet quotas. The routing module can be configured to generate routes including the locations assigned to the individual territories for vehicles in a vehicle fleet.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for determining routes for vehicles in a vehicle fleet, the system comprising:
 a computer system comprising computer hardware programmed to:
 access a plurality of constraints associated with a plurality of vehicles in a vehicle fleet; 
 based at least in on the plurality of constraints, calculate routes on a network of streets in the geographic region between waypoint locations for the plurality of vehicles, at least some of the calculated routes not satisfying one or more of the plurality of constraints associated with the plurality of vehicles; and 
 in response to determining that the calculated route for a first vehicle of the plurality of vehicles satisfies both optimization conditions and the plurality of constraints for the vehicle, output the calculated route for the first vehicle for presentation to a user. 
   
     
     
         2 . A method of determining routes for vehicles in a vehicle fleet, the method comprising:
 accessing stop data representing a plurality of stops for one or more vehicles in a fleet of vehicles;   accessing constraints associated with one or more of the following: the one or more vehicles, one or more vehicle drivers, policies of an organization associated with the fleet of vehicles, and one or more customers associated with the plurality of stops;   calculating proposed routes between the plurality of stops on a network of streets in a geographic region, said calculating comprising evaluating the proposed routes based on a degree to which the proposed routes satisfy the constraints, said evaluating comprising penalizing the proposed routes based on the degree to which the proposed routes do not satisfy the constraints without excluding a first subset of the proposed routes that violate one or more of the constraints; and   selecting a second subset of the proposed routes to be selected routes based at least in part on said evaluating;   wherein at least said calculating is performed by a computer system comprising computer hardware.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein said evaluating comprises penalizing first and second proposed routes of the proposed routes at different rates based on the type of constraints being violated by the first and second proposed routes. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein a first constraint of the constraints is associated with a weightier first penalty for exceeding the first constraint than a second penalty associated with exceeding a second constraint of the constraints. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein said penalizing comprises applying a higher penalty to a first one of the proposed routes that exceeds a first one of the constraints by a first amount than a second one of the proposed routes that exceeds the first one of the constraints by a second amount less than the first amount. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein penalties applied by said penalizing increase linearly with the degree of deviation. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein penalties applied by said penalizing increase exponentially with the degree of deviation. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein said calculating comprises allowing constraints to be violated other than legal constraints. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein said calculating comprises allowing company policy constraints and customer constraints to be violated. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising prioritizing customer constraints over company policy constraints and adjusting penalties for violating customer and company policy constraints based on said prioritizing. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising prioritizing a first customer constraint over a second customer constraint from the same customer based on a degree of importance of the first and second customer constraints as specified by the customer.