One factor that impacts the performance of a mapping solution is the precision of its location data.
For a high volume delivery operation, even a few seconds wasted at each stop searching for the right door can add up to hundreds of hours wasted. Alternatively, for a household oil delivery truck, an incorrect location means that the driver must circle the block to locate the correct delivery address, therefore, wasting time and potentially creating safety issues.
Using a mapping solution to visualise a location or calculate the best route from “A” to “B”, you first need to know where “A” and “B” are located. What sets our commercial vehicle routing and mapping apart from generic mapping solutions is that, through precise geocoding, it can accurately determine the correct locations and provide accurate routing to the driver.
The most common way that mapping solutions determine the location of street addresses is through interpolation of a building location alongside a specified street segment.
In most of Europe, where structured postal address systems operate, this method has typically been considered 'good enough’. However, there are many instances where non-sequential addresses are used, where houses or apartment blocks are not perfectly lined up along a street or are located on unnamed roads, therefore providing a driver with a “fairly close” address can get them into a lot of trouble.
Our commercial mapping solution is enhanced by incorporating “point addressing” data that factors in these anomalies across millions of buildings and street addresses. Our map data layer includes a validated latitude and longitude for many addresses. From that coordinate point we geocode to the closest street location to get drivers to the correct side of the street and the exact building.
This additional map data layer pinpoints locations with a very high degree of accuracy and precision. It can significantly reduce those precious seconds spent searching for the right door/entrance and getting to the exact location for a pick-up or delivery
To find out more about our Geocoding APIs visit our developer portal. Alternatively, want to read more about our commercial maps? Check out our other blog What is commercial map data? What everyone in transportation needs to know about maps >