When scheduling a route, various types of vehicles may be required. Some vehicles may have some driving restrictions. Heavy trucks, for instance, are prohibited to drive in certain urban areas.
Some roads may have restrictions, including speed limitations, weight and space restrictions, and clearance constrains. In order to ensure optimal route planning you can use the Vehicle types option.
How to set up the Vehicle type option in MaxOptra
The **Vehicle type ** option is optional. If you need to set up the Vehicle type option in MaxOptra, please, contact the MaxOptra Support Team.
How to create a Vehicle type in MaxOptra
To create a vehicle type, go to **Settings> Scheduling Configuration>****Vehicle type ** and click the Add button:
Fill in the type's name (the reference number is filled out automatically) and the routing mode, e.g. “Car” or “Truck”. For example, if your vehicle type is “Truck”, you should fill in the fields with the vehicle characteristics, e.g. weight, height, width, length, and axle load. For “Car” such characteristics are not required. You can also select if it is necessary to avoid urban areas or London ULEZ (if applicable).
When vehicle types are created, you may apply them to your fleet vehicles, if you need to. To apply the vehicle type to the vehicle, select the Vehicle type field in the Vehicle form.
MaxOptra will select the optimal route which will vary according to the characteristics of the vehicle - the figures below how the different routes if the vehicle is a car (1) or a truck (2).
1.
For the "Truck", the route will be planned with consideration to all driving restrictions for trucks.
2.
ULEZ restriction setting
Certain vehicles should be restricted from entering the London congestion zone or the so-called Ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ). For this purpose MaxOptra provides a special setting in the Vehicle Type form, called Avoid London Ultra-low Emission Zone.
Tick this checkbox if you want to restrict vehicles of this type to enter the ULEZ. Now you can apply this vehicle type to your vehicles.
**Note ** This option may not be available for your account, so please contact the MaxOptra Support Team for clarification.
To see how it works, go to the Planning screen and run auto-planning. Orders located withing ULEZ will be allocated to vehicles free from restrictions(or remain unplanned if no appropriate vehicles are available). See examples below.
Order located within the ULEZ was allocated to a vehicle with restriction setting disabled. The route is build through the restriction zone.
Order located within the ULEZ remained unplanned. The route to the other order was planned avoiding the restriction zone.
However, if you manually allocate the ULEZ-located order to a vehicle with the said setting enabled, a violation is displayed: The vehicle is not allowed in London ULEZ.
Note In case an order is actually located outside ULEZ, but the driver cannot approach it other than by entering the restriction zone, the same violation is displayed:
