The Solvice VRP API evolved significantly over the past year, scaling from handling thousands of optimization jobs to tens of thousands while maintaining solution quality. This post details the technical capabilities that enable field service and last-mile delivery operations to optimize at enterprise scale.
The API now processes 3x more jobs per optimization run than previous versions: Scale: 15,000 → 50,000 jobs per optimization
These metrics reflect changes to the underlying metaheuristic algorithms that power millions of service appointments and deliveries daily.
Mathematically optimal routes can still frustrate drivers when they're sent back to neighborhoods they just left. Even when travel time is minimized, routes that revisit the same area multiple times feel inefficient.
In practice, most route optimization systems either merge nearby jobs into one stop or require planners to predefine groups. Solvice takes a different approach: proximity becomes a soft optimization signal, encouraging couriers to complete nearby jobs back-to-back while preserving flexibility in the route.
Job Proximity Scoring addresses this by encouraging the optimizer to complete all jobs within a configurable radius before moving to the next area. You set a proximity radius (50m to 1500m) and a weight that controls how strongly the optimizer should avoid geographic backtracking while balancing other constraints like time windows and capacity.
Use cases:
This feature balances mathematical efficiency with reducing navigation errors and improving route acceptance.
Long installations, complex repairs, and extended care visits often require technicians to pause for mandatory breaks. Resumable jobs allow multi-hour tasks to be interrupted for lunch breaks or meetings, then resumed without leaving work incomplete or violating labor regulations.
A construction equipment installer can book a 6-hour installation knowing the system automatically schedules break compliance. Healthcare providers manage 3-hour home care visits while ensuring caregivers take required rest periods.
Not all 30-minute jobs require the same effort. Working on a rooftop HVAC in bad weather and an equipment delivery might take the same time, but they demand vastly different mental and physical loads. Job Complexity (scored 0-100) models task difficulty independently from duration, enabling fair workload distribution.
This prevents senior technicians from being consistently assigned only complex repairs while junior staff handle simple calls—a common cause of burnout and retention issues.
Instead of hard-coding resource assignments, rank resources 1-100 for specific jobs. A customer's preferred technician gets priority (ranking: 10), but an acceptable alternative (ranking: 60) can handle the job if capacity requires it.
This approach balances customer satisfaction with operational flexibility.
Some jobs must happen first: warehouse equipment pickup, supply collection, morning briefings, vehicle loading. First Job Relations ensures these critical starting tasks are scheduled before any service calls.
Telecom field technicians collect specialized equipment before their first appointment. Healthcare providers ensure medical supply pickup happens before patient visits.
When senior and junior technicians have different hourly rates ($75/hour vs. $45/hour), the optimizer can route simple tasks to lower-cost resources while reserving expensive expertise for complex or critical jobs.
Real-time and predictive traffic routing optimizes departure times to avoid congestion, with live ETA updates throughout the day. Historical patterns predict rush-hour delays before they occur.
Process 50,000 deliveries across your entire fleet in a single optimization run without batch splitting. National logistics providers now optimize entire regional operations in one solve, eliminating manual batch management and the suboptimal routes that result from splitting large problems.
Tag jobs by service level (express, standard, economy) and define execution order. The optimizer automatically ensures express packages are delivered before standard packages—no manual sorting required.
This capability helped an e-commerce fulfillment partner avoid six-figure SLA penalties by ensuring guaranteed same-day deliveries always happen before next-day shipments, even when routes are dynamically optimized.
Multiple packages to the same address or multiple services at one business can share coordinates automatically, reducing data redundancy and eliminating coordinate entry errors.
Postal services handling apartment building deliveries or business park routes see cleaner data, faster setup, and fewer coordinate-related routing errors.
Heavy furniture delivery, fragile electronics requiring signature, or multi-floor carries have higher complexity than mailbox drops—even if duration is similar. Complexity scoring enables fair driver workload distribution.
Food delivery partners report better driver retention when difficult deliveries (multiple bags, high-rise buildings, complex instructions) are distributed equitably instead of always going to the same drivers.
Clear diagnostic codes replace cryptic "cannot assign" messages: DATE_TIME_WINDOW_CONFLICT, CAPACITY_EXCEEDED, SKILL_MISMATCH, DISTANCE_CONSTRAINT, BREAK_CONFLICT. Detailed reasons enable faster problem resolution.
Model complete unavailability periods—team meetings, training sessions, vehicle maintenance windows—alongside flexible breaks and mandatory rest periods. The optimizer respects these real-world scheduling constraints.
Real-time optimization for interactive applications returns instant responses for dynamic route modifications, what-if scenarios, and live schedule updates. This powers dispatch dashboards and mobile applications that require immediate feedback.
The Solvice VRP API is designed for software developers building field service management, last-mile delivery, logistics, and workforce scheduling applications. Every feature addresses specific operational challenges identified by customers running production routing systems.
