Frequently Asked Questions

What is Open Street?

Open Street is a tour optimisation service similar to Google Maps or Bing Maps, in the sense that it displays routes and at the same time is very different in that it optimises the routes, which is not present in Google or Bing. Our service can be used to optimise several hundreds of points.

More precisely, it is an online service enabling you to calculate optimised rounds. This allows you to change the routes of vehicles traveling on the road to save time and fuel. This service works for rounds of 3 to several hundred points. Open Street is extremely fast and efficient.

Why use your service instead of Google Maps

The popular applications such as Google Maps or Bing Maps are limited on two aspects. Firstly, they do not enable you to exceed a dozen points within their mainstream version. Secondly, they do not accurately measure the passage order between the points, but merely link them according to their sequencing order. Conversely, Open Street optimizes your rounds within the best order possible for itineraries comprising of multiple hundred of points, and you can export the data to a spreadsheet for example.

In addition, some current optimization services require the customer to commit to a large volume of data with a high entry ticket, which can be a disincentive to use.

By optimizing itineraries, you can save travel time and fuel. This translates into significant savings for your company (human time, vehicle wear, fuel costs) and greater productivity. On a global scale, this reduces your environmental impact.

Who can use Open Street ?

In its basic version which has some limitations, the Open Street service is free for all. We also offer a commercial service to companies who wish to do so by providing APIs or a dedicated web application in white label.

For specific needs, important needs of optimization, geocoding or calculation of distances, do not hesitate to contact us via the form to establish a personalized offer.

Our users come from various sectors.

  • Commerce : sales teams, taking physical appointments.
  • Maintenance : technicians and operators who have to work on numerous equipments.
  • Transport : logistics and Road transport companies
  • Delivery : letters or parcel delivery companies
  • Independents : all types of businesses that do not outsource the delivery of goods
  • Individuals : economic road-trips to visit many places

What are the functionalities ?

You can check out our features page for more details. On this page, also watch our demo video with subtitles.

What is the geographical coverage ?

Our service currently manages optimizations throughout Europe and possibly crossing borders or getting a ferry to the UK.

We plan to extend the geographical area to the whole world.

Which technologies do you use ?

We use open source projects in the solutions we offer whenever possible. So for this service, we use data from the excellent OpenStreetMap project. The data in this free database is constantly modified as you can see at this address, making OpenStreetMap the most comprehensive and reactive source of geographic information in the world.

The solution to the traveler salesman problem is done by software developed in-house. The processing of geographical data and the calculation of distances is carried out thanks to an in-memory database we manage.

What are APIs and do I need them ?

The term API is the acronym for « Application Programming Interface ». These are the software components used to exploit our optimisation infrastructure within your own software. Our APIs are interfaced with computer software, while our web service is used by human beings.

You will need to use our APIs if you want to develop or have someone develop custom software that will meet your specific needs. So your software will manage the entire user interface and import-export data, while our APIs will allow you to get optimisation results. Your software will be very reactive even on a low performance machine (laptop, tablet, smartphone, …) while large calculations are carried out in our central servers.

Conversely, if you only want to use a ready-to-use route optimisation solution, you do not need our APIs. You can instead use our online service with its ergonomic interface.

What is the cost of this service ?

The Open Street online application is free for a limited level of functionality, but you’ll need to pay for your customer account by depositing money, to benefit from leveraged advanced features, and enhanced performance. For example, if you want to occasionally optimise trips in the order of 10 points, the service is free. On the other hand, if you have several hundred optimisations to process each day of approx 80 points, this is possible only by depositing credit on your account.

As for the APIs, they are accessible to everyone after creating a customer account. The API keys are communicated to you in the customer area, and the documentation is available here for their use.