Update a delivery vehicle location

Approaches

For the best performance with Fleet Engine, provide it with a stream of vehicle location updates at least once every minute and at most once every 5 seconds. Use either of the following ways to provide these updates:

  • Use the Driver SDK: Simplest option.
  • Use custom code: useful if locations are relayed through your backend, or if you use devices other than Android or iOS. This document covers that approach.

Regardless of how you provide vehicle location updates, your backend is responsible for updating Fleet Engine when a delivery vehicle is enroute to a stop and when it arrives at a stop. This includes the depot itself. Fleet Engine does not detect these events automatically.

Update vehicle location examples

You can use the Java gRPC library to update a vehicle's location in Fleet Engine, or use REST.

Java

  static final String PROJECT_ID = "my-delivery-co-gcp-project";
  static final String VEHICLE_ID = "vehicle-8241890";

  DeliveryServiceBlockingStub deliveryService =
    DeliveryServiceGrpc.newBlockingStub(channel);

  // Vehicle settings
  String vehicleName = "providers/" + PROJECT_ID + "/deliveryVehicles/" + VEHICLE_ID;
  DeliveryVehicle myDeliveryVehicle = DeliveryVehicle.newBuilder()
      .setLastLocation(DeliveryVehicleLocation.newBuilder()
          .setSupplementalLocation(LatLng.newBuilder()
              .setLatitude(37.3382)
              .setLongitude(121.8863))
          .setSupplementalLocationTime(now())
          .setSupplementalLocationSensor(DeliveryVehicleLocationSensor.CUSTOMER_SUPPLIED_LOCATION)
          .setSupplementalLocationAccuracy(DoubleValue.of(15.0)))  // Optional
      .build();

  // DeliveryVehicle request
  UpdateDeliveryVehicleRequest updateDeliveryVehicleRequest =
    UpdateDeliveryVehicleRequest.newBuilder()  // No need for the header
        .setName(vehicleName)
        .setDeliveryVehicle(myDeliveryVehicle)
        .setUpdateMask(FieldMask.newBuilder()
            .addPaths("last_location"))
        .build();

  try {
    DeliveryVehicle updatedDeliveryVehicle =
        deliveryService.updateDeliveryVehicle(updateDeliveryVehicleRequest);
  } catch (StatusRuntimeException e) {
    Status s = e.getStatus();
    switch (s.getCode()) {
       case NOT_FOUND:
         break;
       case PERMISSION_DENIED:
         break;
    }
    return;
  }

REST

PATCH https://fleetengine.googleapis.com/v1/providers/<project_id>/deliveryVehicles/<id>?updateMask=last_location

Request details

The request body must contain a DeliveryVehicle entity that specifies fields as follows:

  • Required fields:

    FieldValue
    lastLocation.supplementalLocation The location of the vehicle.
    lastLocation.supplementalLocationTime The last known timestamp the vehicle was at this location.
    lastLocation.supplementalLocationSensor Should be populated with CUSTOMER_SUPPLIED_LOCATION.

  • Optional fields:

    FieldValue
    lastLocation.supplementalLocationAccuracy Accuracy of the supplied location, in meters. 

  # Set JWT, PROJECT_ID, VEHICLE_ID, TASK1_ID, and TASK2_ID in the local
  # environment
  curl -X PATCH "https://fleetengine.googleapis.com/v1/providers/${PROJECT_ID}/deliveryVehicles/${VEHICLE_ID}?updateMask=remainingVehicleJourneySegments" \
    -H "Content-type: application/json" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer ${JWT}" \
    --data-binary @- << EOM
  {
    "lastLocation": {
      "supplementalLocation": {"latitude": 12.1, "longitude": 14.5},
      "supplementalLocationTime": "$(date -u --iso-8601=seconds)",
      "supplementalLocationSensor": "CUSTOMER_SUPPLIED_LOCATION",
      "supplementalLocationAccuracy": 15
    }
  }
  EOM

What's next