# Submit a route optimization job

To solve a vehicle routing problem, perform the following steps:

1.) Make a HTTP POST to this URL


https://graphhopper.com/api/1/vrp/optimize?key=


It returns a job id (job_id).

2.) Take the job id and fetch the solution for the vehicle routing problem from this URL:


https://graphhopper.com/api/1/vrp/solution/?key=


We recommend to query the solution every 500ms until it returns 'status=finished'.

Note: Since the workflow is a bit more cumbersome and since you lose some time in fetching the solution, you should always prefer
the synchronous endpoint. You should use the batch mode only for long running problems.

Endpoint: POST /vrp/optimize
Version: 1.0.0
Security: api_key

## Request fields (application/json):

  - `vehicles` (array)
    Specifies the available vehicles.

  - `vehicles.vehicle_id` (string, required)
    Specifies the ID of the vehicle. Ids must be unique, i.e. if there are two vehicles with the same ID, an error is returned.
    Example: "vehicle-1"

  - `vehicles.type_id` (string)
    The type ID assigns a vehicle type to this vehicle. You can specify types in the array of vehicle types. If you omit the type ID, the default type is used. The default type is a car with a capacity of 0.
    Example: "my-own-type"

  - `vehicles.shifts` (array)
    Array of shifts.

  - `vehicles.shifts.shift_id` (string)
    A unique identifier for this vehicle's shift.

  - `vehicles.shifts.start_address` (object)

  - `vehicles.shifts.start_address.location_id` (string, required)
    Specifies the id of the location.
    Example: "550e8400-e29b-11d4-a716-446655440000"

  - `vehicles.shifts.start_address.name` (string)
    Name of location.
    Example: "Queens Victoria Street 70, Second Floor, Flat 245"

  - `vehicles.shifts.start_address.lon` (number, required)
    Longitude of location.
    Example: -0.092869

  - `vehicles.shifts.start_address.lat` (number, required)
    Latitude of location.
    Example: 51.512665

  - `vehicles.shifts.start_address.street_hint` (string)
    Optional parameter. Provide a hint that includes only the street name for each address to better snap the coordinates (lon,lat) to road network. E.g. if there is an address or house with two or more neighboring streets you can control for which street the closest location is looked up.
    Example: "Queens Victoria Street 70"

  - `vehicles.shifts.start_address.curbside` (string)
    Optional parameter. Specifies on which side a point should be relative to the driver when she leaves/arrives at a start/target/via point. Only supported for motor vehicles and OpenStreetMap.
    Enum: "right", "left", "any"

  - `vehicles.shifts.end_address` (object)
    If this is omitted AND return_to_depot is true then the vehicle needs to return to its start_address.

  - `vehicles.shifts.earliest_start` (integer)
    Earliest start of vehicle in seconds. It is recommended to use the unix timestamp.

  - `vehicles.shifts.latest_end` (integer)
    Latest end of vehicle in seconds, i.e. the time the vehicle needs to be at its end location at latest.

  - `vehicles.shifts.return_to_depot` (boolean)
    If true, vehicle returns to its start location (or specified end location). If false, vehicle can end at any customer location that optimizes the objective function.

  - `vehicles.shifts.break` (any)

  - `vehicles.return_to_depot` (boolean)
    If it is false, the algorithm decides where to end the vehicle route. It ends in one of your customers' locations. The end is chosen such that it contributes to the overall objective function, e.g. min transport_time. If it is true, you can either specify a specific end location (which is then regarded as end depot) or you can leave it and the driver returns to its start location.

  - `vehicles.skills` (array)
    Array of skills, i.e. array of string (not case sensitive).
    Example: ["drilling_mashine","screw_driver"]

  - `vehicles.max_distance` (integer)
    Specifies the maximum distance (in meters) a vehicle can go.
    Example: 400000

  - `vehicles.max_driving_time` (integer)
    Specifies the maximum drive time (in seconds) a vehicle/driver can go, i.e. the maximum time on the road (service and waiting times are not included here)
    Example: 28800

  - `vehicles.max_jobs` (integer)
    Specifies the maximum number of jobs a vehicle can load.
    Example: 12

  - `vehicles.min_jobs` (integer)
    Specifies the minimum number of jobs a vehicle should load. This is a soft constraint, i.e. if it is not possible to fulfill “min_jobs”, we will still try to get as close as possible to this constraint.
    Example: 12

  - `vehicles.max_activities` (integer)
    Specifies the maximum number of activities a vehicle can conduct.
    Example: 24

  - `vehicles.move_to_end_address` (boolean)
    Indicates whether a vehicle should be moved even though it has not been assigned any jobs.

  - `vehicle_types` (array)
    Specifies the available vehicle types. These types can be assigned to vehicles.

  - `vehicle_types.type_id` (string, required)
    Specifies the id of the vehicle type. If a vehicle needs to be of this type, it should refer to this with its type_id attribute.
    Example: "my-own-type"

  - `vehicle_types.profile` (string)
    The routing profile. It determines the network, speed and other physical attributes used when computing the route. See the section about [routing profiles](#tag/Map-Data-and-Routing-Profiles) for more details and valid profile values.

  - `vehicle_types.capacity` (array)
    Specifies an array of capacity dimension values which need to be int values. For example, if there are two dimensions such as volume and weight then it needs to be defined as [ 1000, 300 ] assuming a maximum volume of 1000 and a maximum weight of 300.
    Example: [100,500]

  - `vehicle_types.speed_factor` (number)
    Specifies a speed factor for this vehicle type. If the vehicle that uses this type needs to be only half as fast as what is actually calculated with our routing engine then set the speed factor to 0.5.

  - `vehicle_types.service_time_factor` (number)
    Specifies a service time factor for this vehicle type. If the vehicle/driver that uses this type is able to conduct the service as double as fast as it is determined in the corresponding service or shipment then set it to 0.5.

  - `vehicle_types.cost_per_meter` (number)
    _BETA feature_! Cost parameter per distance unit, here meter is used

  - `vehicle_types.cost_per_second` (number)
    _BETA feature_! Cost parameter per time unit, here second is used

  - `vehicle_types.cost_per_activation` (number)
    _BETA feature_! Cost parameter vehicle activation, i.e. fixed costs per vehicle

  - `vehicle_types.consider_traffic` (boolean)
    Specifies whether traffic should be considered. if "tomtom" is used and this is false, free flow travel times from "tomtom" are calculated. If this is true, historical traffic info are used. We do not yet have traffic data for "openstreetmap", thus, setting this true has no effect at all.

  - `vehicle_types.network_data_provider` (string)
    Specifies the network data provider. Either use [openstreetmap](#tag/Map-Data-and-Routing-Profiles/OpenStreetMap) (default) or [tomtom](#tag/Map-Data-and-Routing-Profiles/TomTom) (add-on required).
    Enum: "openstreetmap", "tomtom"

  - `services` (array)
    Specifies the orders of the type "service". These are, for example, pick-ups, deliveries or other stops that are to be approached by the specified vehicles. Each of these orders contains only one location.

  - `services.id` (string, required)
    Specifies the id of the service. Ids need to be unique so there must not be two services/shipments with the same id.
    Example: "7fe77504-7df8-4497-843c-02d70b6490ce"

  - `services.type` (string)
    Specifies type of service. This makes a difference if items are loaded or unloaded, i.e. if one of the size dimensions > 0. If it is specified as service or pickup, items are loaded and will stay in the vehicle for the rest of the route (and thus consumes capacity for the rest of the route). If it is a delivery, items are implicitly loaded at the beginning of the route and will stay in the route until delivery (and thus releases capacity for the rest of the route).
    Enum: "service", "pickup", "delivery"

  - `services.priority` (integer)
    Specifies the priority. Can be 1 = high priority to 10 = low priority. Priority only affects the solution when not all services can be assigned  (e.g., due to insufficient vehicle capacity, conflicting time windows,  or vehicle constraints). In these cases, the optimizer preferentially  assigns high-priority services and leaves low-priority services unassigned.  The lower the priority value, the earlier these services are omitted from  the solution. When all services can be served within the given constraints,  priority has no effect - all services are assigned regardless of their  priority values, and the optimizer focuses solely on the specified objective  (e.g., minimizing distance or number of vehicles).
    Example: 1

  - `services.name` (string)
    Meaningful name for service, e.g. "deliver pizza".
    Example: "delivery pizza"

  - `services.address` (object)

  - `services.duration` (integer)
    Specifies the duration of the service in seconds, i.e. how long it takes at the customer site.
    Example: 1800

  - `services.preparation_time` (integer)
    Specifies the preparation time in seconds. It can be used to model parking lot search time since if you have 3 identical locations in a row, it only falls due once.
    Example: 300

  - `services.time_windows` (array)
    Specifies an array of time window objects (see time_window object below). Specify the time either with the recommended Unix time stamp (the number of seconds since 1970-01-01) or you can also count the seconds relative to Monday morning 00:00 and define the whole week in seconds. For example, Monday 9am is then represented by 9hour  3600sec/hour = 32400. In turn, Wednesday 1pm corresponds to 2day  24hour/day  3600sec/hour + 1day  13hour/day * 3600sec/hour = 219600. See this tutorial for more information.
    Example: [{"earliest":32400,"latest":36000},{"earliest":50400,"latest":54000}]

  - `services.time_windows.earliest` (integer)
    Specifies the opening time of the time window in seconds, i.e. the earliest time the service can start.

  - `services.time_windows.latest` (integer)
    Specifies the closing time of the time window in seconds, i.e. the latest time the service can start.

  - `services.size` (array)
    Size can have multiple dimensions and should be in line with the capacity dimension array of the vehicle type. For example, if the item that needs to be delivered has two size dimension, volume and weight, then specify it as follow [ 20, 5 ] assuming a volume of 20 and a weight of 5.
    Example: [30,5,1]

  - `services.required_skills` (array)
    Specifies an array of required skills, i.e. array of string (not case sensitive). For example, if this service needs to be conducted by a technician having a drilling_machine and a screw_driver then specify the array as follows: ["drilling_machine","screw_driver"]. This means that the service can only be done by a vehicle (technician) that has the skills drilling_machine AND screw_driver in its skill array. Otherwise it remains unassigned.
    Example: ["drilling_machine","screw_driver"]

  - `services.allowed_vehicles` (array)
    Specifies an array of allowed vehicles, i.e. array of vehicle ids. For example, if this service can only be conducted EITHER by technician_peter OR technician_stefan specify this as follows: ["technician_peter","technician_stefan"].
    Example: ["technician_peter","technician_stefan"]

  - `services.disallowed_vehicles` (array)
    Specifies an array of disallowed vehicles, i.e. array of vehicle ids.
    Example: ["driver-A","driver-B"]

  - `services.preferred_vehicles` (array)
    Specifies an array of preferred vehicles.

  - `services.preferred_vehicles.vehicle_id` (string)
    Id of the preferred vehicle.

  - `services.preferred_vehicles.priority` (integer)
    Number between 1 and 10 which indicates the priority of the preferred vehicle. 1 indicates the highest priority, 10 the lowest.

  - `services.max_time_in_vehicle` (integer)
    Specifies the maximum time in seconds a delivery can stay in the vehicle. Currently, it only works with services of "type":"delivery".
    Example: 900

  - `services.group` (string)
    Group this service belongs to. See the group relation and [this post](https://discuss.graphhopper.com/t/4040) on how to utilize this.
    Example: "group-A"

  - `shipments` (array)
    Specifies the available shipments. Each shipment consists of a pickup and a delivery. For a single shipment, the pickup must always occur before the delivery. However, pickups and deliveries from multiple shipments can be sequenced independently.

  - `shipments.id` (string, required)
    Specifies the id of the shipment. Ids need to be unique so there must not be two services/shipments with the same id.
    Example: "7fe77504-7df8-4497-843c-02d70b6490ce"

  - `shipments.name` (string)
    Meaningful name for shipment, e.g. "pickup and deliver pizza to Peter".
    Example: "pickup and deliver pizza to Peter"

  - `shipments.priority` (integer)
    Specifies the priority. Can be 1 = high priority to 10 = low priority. Priority only affects the solution when not all shipments can be assigned  (e.g., due to insufficient vehicle capacity, conflicting time windows,  or vehicle constraints). In these cases, the optimizer preferentially  assigns high-priority shipments and leaves low-priority shipments unassigned.  The lower the priority value, the earlier these shipments are omitted from  the solution. When all shipments can be served within the given constraints,  priority has no effect - all shipments are assigned regardless of their  priority values, and the optimizer focuses solely on the specified objective  (e.g., minimizing distance or number of vehicles).
    Example: 1

  - `shipments.pickup` (object, required)

  - `shipments.pickup.address` (object)
    Specifies pickup or delivery address.

  - `shipments.pickup.duration` (integer)
    Specifies the duration of the pickup or delivery in seconds, e.g. how long it takes unload items at the customer site.
    Example: 1800

  - `shipments.pickup.time_windows` (array)
    Specifies an array of time window objects (see time window object below). For example, if an item needs to be delivered between 7am and 10am then specify the array as follows: [ { "earliest": 25200, "latest" : 32400 } ] (starting the day from 0 in seconds).
    Example: [{"earliest":32400,"latest":36000},{"earliest":50400,"latest":54000}]

  - `shipments.pickup.group` (string)
    Group this stop belongs to. See the group relation and [this post](https://discuss.graphhopper.com/t/4040) on how to utilize this.
    Example: "ASAP"

  - `shipments.delivery` (object, required)

  - `shipments.required_skills` (array)
    Specifies an array of required skills, i.e. array of string (not case sensitive). For example, if this shipment needs to be conducted by a technician having a drilling_machine and a screw_driver then specify the array as follows: ["drilling_machine","screw_driver"]. This means that the service can only be done by a vehicle (technician) that has the skills drilling_machine AND screw_driver in its skill array. Otherwise it remains unassigned.
    Example: ["drilling_machine","screw_driver"]

  - `shipments.allowed_vehicles` (array)
    Specifies an array of allowed vehicles, i.e. array of vehicle ids. For example, if this shipment can only be conducted EITHER by "technician_peter" OR "technician_stefan" specify this as follows: ["technician_peter","technician_stefan"].
    Example: ["technician_peter","technician_stefan"]

  - `shipments.max_time_in_vehicle` (integer)
    Specifies the maximum time in seconds a shipment can stay in the vehicle.
    Example: 1800

  - `relations` (array)
    Defines additional relationships between orders.

  - `objectives` (array)
    Specifies an objective function. The vehicle routing problem is solved in such a way that this objective function is minimized.
    Example: [{"type":"min","value":"vehicles"},{"type":"min","value":"completion_time"}]

  - `objectives.type` (string, required)
    Type of objective function, i.e. min or min-max.

 * min: Minimizes the objective value.
 * min-max: Minimizes the maximum objective value.

For instance, min -> vehicles minimizes the number of employed vehicles.
min -> completion_time minimizes the sum of your vehicle routes' completion time.

If you use, for example, min-max -> completion_time, it minimizes the maximum of your vehicle routes' completion time, i.e. it minimizes the overall makespan.
This only makes sense if you have more than one vehicle. In case of one vehicle, switching from min to min-max should not have any impact.
If you have more than one vehicle, then the algorithm tries to constantly move stops from one vehicle to another such that
the completion time of longest vehicle route can be further reduced. For example, if you have one vehicle that takes 8 hours
to serve all customers, adding another vehicle (and using min-max) might halve the time to serve all customers to 4 hours. However,
this usually comes with higher transport costs.

If you want to minimize vehicles first and, second, completion_time, you can also combine different objectives like this:

json
"objectives" : [
   {
      "type": "min",
      "value": "vehicles"
   },
   {
      "type": "min",
      "value": "completion_time"
   }
]


If you want to balance activities or the number of stops among all employed drivers, you need to specify it as follows:

json
"objectives" : [
   {
      "type": "min-max",
      "value": "completion_time"
   },
   {
      "type": "min-max",
      "value": "activities"
   }
]
    Enum: "min", "min-max"

  - `objectives.value` (string, required)
    The value of the objective function.
The objective value transport_time solely considers the time
your drivers spend on the road, i.e. transport time. In contrary to transport_time, completion_time also takes waiting times at customer sites into account.
The completion_time of a route is defined as the time from starting to ending the route,
i.e. the route's transport time, the sum of waiting times plus the sum of activity durations. 
The completion_time_last_stop, on the other hand, refers to the completion time of the very last order in a tour or, in other words, 
the completion time without the last section from the last stop to the end of the tour. 
This is typically used if the orders are to be processed as quickly as possible.
The objective value vehicles can only be used along with min and minimizes vehicles.
    Enum: "completion_time", "completion_time_last_stop", "transport_time", "vehicles", "activities"

  - `cost_matrices` (array)
    Specifies your own tranport time and distance matrices.

  - `cost_matrices.type` (string)
    type of cost matrix, currently default or google are supported
    Enum: "default", "google"

  - `cost_matrices.location_ids` (array)

  - `cost_matrices.data` (object)
    JSON data of matrix response

  - `cost_matrices.data.times` (array)

  - `cost_matrices.data.distances` (array)

  - `cost_matrices.data.info` (object)
    Additional information for your request

  - `cost_matrices.data.info.copyrights` (array)

  - `cost_matrices.data.info.took` (number)

  - `cost_matrices.profile` (string)
    vehicle profile or empty if catch all fallback

  - `configuration` (object)
    Specifies general configurations.

  - `configuration.routing` (object)
    This contains all routing specific configurations.

  - `configuration.routing.calc_points` (boolean)
    It lets you specify whether the API should provide you with route geometries for vehicle routes or not. Thus, you do not need to do extra routing to get the polyline for each route.

  - `configuration.routing.consider_traffic` (boolean)
    indicates whether historical traffic information should be considered

  - `configuration.routing.network_data_provider` (string)
    specifies the data provider, read more about it [here](#tag/Map-Data-and-Routing-Profiles).
    Enum: "openstreetmap", "tomtom"

  - `configuration.routing.curbside_strictness` (string)
    In some cases curbside constraints cannot be fulfilled. For example in one-way streets you cannot arrive at a building that is on the left side of the street such that the building is to the right of you (unless you drove the one-way street the wrong/illegal way). You can set the curbside_strictness to soft to ignore the curbside constraint in such cases or set it to strict to get an error response instead. You can also set it to ignore to ignore all curbside constraints (this is useful to compare the results with and without constraints without modifying every single address).
    Enum: "ignore", "soft", "strict"

  - `configuration.routing.fail_fast` (boolean)
    indicates whether matrix calculation should fail fast when points cannot be connected

  - `configuration.routing.return_snapped_waypoints` (boolean)
    Indicates whether a solution includes snapped waypoints. In contrary to the address coordinate a snapped waypoint is the access point to the (road) network.

  - `configuration.routing.snap_preventions` (array)
    Optional parameter. 'Snapping' is the process of finding the closest road location for GPS coordinates provided in the points array. The snap_preventions array allows you to prevent snapping to specific types of roads. For example, if the array includes bridge, then the routing engine will avoid snapping to a bridge, even if it is the closest road for the given point. Note that once snapped the routing algorithm can still route over bridges (or the other values). To avoid this you need to use the custom_model.
    Enum: "motorway", "trunk", "bridge", "ford", "tunnel", "ferry"

  - `configuration.optimization` (object)
    This contains all optimization specific configurations.

  - `configuration.optimization.free_insertion` (boolean)
    If you use groups, you sometimes want to place orders without group assignment in the best position, i.e. sometimes in the middle of a group and not before or after the group. This is not allowed by default. However, if this field here is "true", these orders (without a group assignment) can be inserted freely.

  - `algorithm` (object)
    Use objectives instead.

  - `algorithm.problem_type` (string)
    Enum: "min", "min-max"

  - `algorithm.objective` (string)
    Enum: "transport_time", "completion_time"

## Response 200 fields (application/json):

  - `job_id` (string)
    UUID. Unique id for your job/request with which you can fetch your solution
    Example: "44886560-b584-4da5-b245-768151dacd8f"

## Response 400 fields (application/json):

  - `message` (string)
    Short error message
    Example: "Bad Request"

  - `hints` (array)
    Optional error information.

  - `hints.message` (string)
    error message
    Example: "unsupported json property [vehiles]. allowed properties: [vehicles, vehicle_types, services, shipments, relations, algorithm, objectives, cost_matrices, configuration]"

  - `hints.details` (string)
    Details
    Example: "class java.lang.IllegalArgumentException"

  - `status` (string)
    status
    Example: "finished"

## Response 500 fields (application/json):

  - `code` (integer)
    Example: 500

  - `message` (string)
    Details
    Example: "There has been an internal server error."