Monitoring trips
Overview
Trips model visiting multiple locations with a vehicle and doing multiple actions on and in between those locations, such as loading and unloading consignments. A single trip goes through multiple phases, each which has more information than the previous. It is possible that different parties are only involved in some of the phases, so it is not required to model each phase.
The different phases of a trip are:
-
Creating a (draft) planning of a trip. This planning contains the locations that need to be visited, but might or might not know at which times these locatons will be visited. All actions in this trip are in the lifecycle planned. Other information about the trip might be gradually added, such as the vehicle and the driver that are supposed to drive this trip. Note that this is not mandatory though, if information is present it can be provided right at the start.
-
Once a planning is finalized it can be driven. The vehicle and planned times are all known. At this point we might know more about the state of the world and can anticipate what will happen during the trip, such as being delayed because of a traffic jam. Continous location update and traffic events can provide real-time insight in where the vehicle is, that can serve as a basis to make predictions.
-
Once all is set and done the trip is finished. All information is known and cannot change anymore since it is in the past. This information is useful so we can compare our original planning with what actually happened so we can make more accurate planning data in the future. It can also be used for billing, or analyzing the data to find bottlebecks and optimize the process for next trips.
General structure
Monitoring trips is a complex operation that includes almost every entity and action within OTM, and was actually the primary reason for creating OTM. Looking at the original image from OTM entities we can see that for the monitoring trips profile, only the TransportOrder is not present. Everything that can be present in phase 1 is black, the additions for phase 2 are made purple, and the only addition for phase 3 is actual proof of delivery using a HandOver made red.
Since this might not give enough insight, we can also present the hierarchy with the required rules as follows:
- Trip
- A trip must have a unique UUID.
- A trip can contain a vehicle that is requested/planned/realized to drive the corresponding trip. Once the trip is in phase 2 the vehicle should be known.
- A trip can contain a list of involved actors, such as the carrier driving the trip of the shipper containing the goods to be transported. They are not mandatory, but recommended.
- A trip can contain constraints about the time windows between which the trip should be completed.
- A trip must contain a list of actions, including at least two stops, and optionally a move between them. Since a trip has to visit at least two places to be considered a trip.
- Stop
- A stop must contain a Location
- A stop can contain actions itself, usually load and unload actions
- The load and unload actions only require a reference to the consignments that are loaded/unloaded.
- A stop can also contain genericActions in for actions that do not have a native OTM variant yet (such as taking a break, applying maintenance, adding fuel, etc.).
- A stop can contain any other data that is present in the specification, such as a sequenceNumber, startTime, endTime, remark, etc.
- A stop can contain a time-based constraint.
- Move (this is optional), can contain the route between two stops to exactly show how to go from one place to another.
- And then again stop/move/stop, etc.
- Stop
Examples
A (planned) trip
We start with a trip, give it a unique ID, and add the relevant parties involved (shipper, carrier):
{
"id": "976eed42-bccc-4731-9d01-85ec3a16bd7b",
"status": "requested",
"actors": [
{
"entity": {
"id": "0d3198ad-2f2d-4aed-8c77-6d7779aefba3",
"name": "Shipping Company TM"
},
"roles": [ "shipper" ],
"associationType": "inline"
},
{
"entity": {
"id": "005cffff-4aba-4e2d-a79d-d428ba93ae8a",
"name": "Carrier Transport"
},
"roles": [ "carrier" ],
"associationType": "inline"
}
],
"actions": [ ]
}
Then we create the first stop on the departure location:
{
"entity": {
"id": "2664fb3c-9ce4-4a56-98d0-4ac76c2a40c4",
"lifecycle": "planned",
"sequenceNr": 0,
"location": {
"entity": {
"id": "5a71bd67-e51c-46d1-842b-5fa171c0eb08",
"name": "Location of distribution center Bananas Inc",
"geoReference": {
"lat": 1,
"lon": 0,
"type": "latLonPointGeoReference"
}
},
"associationType": "inline"
},
"actions": [ ],
"actionType": "stop"
},
"associationType": "inline"
}
We can add a constraint, to indicate that this stop should be visited between the boundary time windows:
"constraint": {
"entity": {
"value": {
"startTime": "2021-03-25T10:00:00Z",
"endTime": "2021-03-25T11:00:00Z",
"type": "timeWindowConstraint"
}
},
"associationType": "inline"
},
Then, on the stop, a load action is created, with the consignment to be loaded:
{
"entity": {
"id": "2a806c26-640c-4562-85d5-8ea4b9e7d80f",
"lifecycle": "planned",
"consignment": {
"entity": {
"id": "04a9870f-52c0-463a-80c1-7d1d81c8b38a",
"goods": [
{
"entity": {
"id": "db504c69-3769-4d70-9403-c870dabdbe4c",
"description": "Ordered box of Bananas",
"quantity": 2,
"type": "items"
},
"associationType": "inline"
}
]
},
"associationType": "inline"
},
"actionType": "load"
},
"associationType": "inline"
}
The complete trip can be found here
A trip with vehicle, trailer and driver information
Continuing, once the trip contains planned actions we can attach a vehicle:
"vehicle": {
"entity": {
"id": "1ee44c03-f899-421f-8e89-8f568ca30424",
"vehicleType": "truck",
"fuel": "Diesel",
"length": {
"value": 9,
"unit": "m"
},
"height": {
"value": 4.2,
"unit": "m"
},
"width": {
"value": 2.5,
"unit": "m"
},
"licensePlate": "AB-12-CD"
},
"associationType": "inline"
},
Whenever we found a driver to drive the truck, we can add that to the actors of the trip (not the vehicle):
{
"entity": {
"id": "6084fd58-d26b-47e9-945b-5df9f2a36d70",
"name": "Hank",
"contactDetails": [
{
"value": "0031699999999",
"type": "phone"
}
]
},
"roles": [ "driver" ],
"associationType": "inline"
}
Lastly, if we need a trailer on the truck we can attach it on a stop (usually the first). As an example here is the complete first stop with trailer attachment:
{
"entity": {
"id": "2664fb3c-9ce4-4a56-98d0-4ac76c2a40c4",
"lifecycle": "planned",
"sequenceNr": 0,
"location": {
"entity": {
"id": "5a71bd67-e51c-46d1-842b-5fa171c0eb08",
"name": "Location of distribution center Bananas Inc",
"geoReference": {
"lat": 1,
"lon": 0,
"type": "latLonPointGeoReference"
}
},
"associationType": "inline"
},
"actions": [
{
"entity": {
"lifecycle": "planned",
"transportEquipment": {
"entity": {
"id": "25b01018-a5b4-4cee-a14f-6b72d8624b77",
"equipmentType": "trailer",
"licensePlate": "01-AAA-1"
},
"associationType": "inline"
},
"actionType": "attachTransportEquipment"
},
"associationType": "inline"
},
{
"entity": {
"id": "2a806c26-640c-4562-85d5-8ea4b9e7d80f",
"lifecycle": "planned",
"consignment": {
"entity": {
"id": "04a9870f-52c0-463a-80c1-7d1d81c8b38a",
"goods": [
{
"entity": {
"id": "376a5f1f-0b68-4671-bab6-2bd2b63c9f7b",
"description": "Ordered box of Bananas",
"quantity": 2,
"type": "items"
},
"associationType": "inline"
}
]
},
"associationType": "inline"
},
"actionType": "load"
},
"associationType": "inline"
}
],
"constraint": {
"entity": {
"value": {
"startTime": "2021-03-25T10:00:00Z",
"endTime": "2021-03-25T11:00:00Z",
"type": "timeWindowConstraint"
}
},
"associationType": "inline"
},
"actionType": "stop"
},
"associationType": "inline"
},
You might wonder why the trailer is on the stop instead of on the vehicle itself. The reason is that in many logistic operations there might be more than one trailer involved. By using one system the simple case might be a little more involved, but it works without any changes for more complex operations.
The complete trip with vehicle information can be found here
A trip with realization data
So, once we have the complete planned trip above we can start driving and enrich the real-time GPS data to the vehicle by some FMS:
{
"id": "a9c8746e-d6ca-401b-8890-759188789092",
"lifecycle": "actual",
"vehicle": {
"uuid": "1ee44c03-f899-421f-8e89-8f568ca30424",
"entityType": "vehicle",
"associationType": "reference"
},
"geoReference": {
"lat": 2,
"lon": 3,
"type": "latLonPointGeoReference"
}
}
Now the original trip can be enriched with the realized stop data by creating stops with the same UUID, but the lifecycle realized:
{
"entity": {
"id": "2664fb3c-9ce4-4a56-98d0-4ac76c2a40c4",
"lifecycle": "realized",
"sequenceNr": 0,
"location": {
"uuid": "5a71bd67-e51c-46d1-842b-5fa171c0eb08",
"entityType": "location",
"associationType": "reference"
},
"startTime": "2021-03-25T10:11:00Z",
"endTime": "2021-03-25T10:34:00Z",
"actions": [
{
"entity": {
"id": "2a806c26-640c-4562-85d5-8ea4b9e7d80f",
"lifecycle": "realized",
"consignment": {
"uuid": "04a9870f-52c0-463a-80c1-7d1d81c8b38a",
"entityType": "consignment",
"associationType": "reference"
},
"actionType": "load"
},
"associationType": "inline"
}
],
"constraint": {
"entity": {
"value": {
"startTime": "2021-03-25T10:00:00Z",
"endTime": "2021-03-25T11:00:00Z",
"type": "timeWindowConstraint"
}
},
"associationType": "inline"
},
"actionType": "stop"
},
"associationType": "inline"
}
The complete trip with all realization data can be found here
A trip with consignor/consignees
The above trip depicts the situation where all the goods in the trip belong to a single party, the shipper. However in real logistic operations it often happens that a carrier transports goods of different parties in a single trip. You can model this situation in OTM5 by using the designated actor roles consignor and consignee on each consignment:
"consignment": {
"entity": {
"id": "04a9870f-52c0-463a-80c1-7d1d81c8b38a",
"goods": [
{
"entity": {
"id": "eb2e8f2a-b573-4d66-9d99-ff9235e10415",
"description": "Ordered box of Bananas",
"quantity": 2,
"type": "items"
},
"associationType": "inline"
}
],
"actors": [
{
"entity": {
"id": "a1c3c25b-f766-45b6-b09d-07005d565353",
"name": "Bananas Inc."
},
"roles": [ "consignor" ],
"associationType": "inline"
},
{
"entity": {
"id": "02724538-1022-46cc-8286-186154fc0b9b",
"name": "Fine Food groceries"
},
"roles": [ "consignee" ],
"associationType": "inline"
}
]
},
"associationType": "inline"
},
The complete trip using consignor/consignee can be found here.