by Tim Archer, MSIE - The Industrial Analyst

Summary:

• The Traveling Salesman Problem describes connecting places to form the shortest route thereby minimizing fuel consuption.
• Anyone can optimize their routes with a GPS unit and Archer Tool's Deluxe TSP Tool or Fuel EconoMizer.
• The article describes the process and gives an example.

The Traveling Salesman Problem is what we are all faced with in these times of record gasoline prices and their burden on home finances. If you are not familiar with the traveling salesman problem, it is basically this:

• A traveling salesman must visit a number of stops on his sales route
• He must visit each site only once.
• He must complete his route traversing the fewest miles.
• What is the best sequence of cities in this optimized route?

Isn't this a good idea for anyone that wants to save on fuel costs? But how do you do it?

Well, being interested is saving gasoline, I decided to use my GPS unit and the Deluxe TSP Tool to generate some optimized routes based on places I frequent around my home. The coordinates are easy to get because my GPS unit displays them at my locations. (You can also get coordinates from on-line geocoders and popular mapping services.)

Below is a few of the places that I drive to on a routine basis.

I calculated the distances from my home to all the other places (my software does it automatically) and discovered that if I made 9 trips, I would travel about 16.8 miles.

Now this is where my Deluxe TSP Tool (Now On Sale!) comes in. The Deluxe TSP Tool is not mapping software or a driving directions tool; it is a route optimizer. It connects the dots to give you an economical route. The program seeks the shortest route that connects all the points and uses our unique optimization technology. The shortest route uses the least fuel. The shortest route can save you money.

I entered the data into the Deluxe TSP Tool and clicked "Find Route" and this is the result:

By making one trip to nine stops instead of nine trips to nine stops, I saved 12 miles (75%)! At today's gasoline prices, I estimate yearly savings of over $160 for this one consolidated optimized weekly trip! If you operate a fleet of vehicles and need to drive dozens of places, think how much you could save with a tool like this!

By consolidating and optimizing your driving destinations, you can save money on gasoline and also wear and tear on your car! Download my tool and give it a spin around the block! After you download and install the Trial Version, load my experiment [Personal Routing Example in Program Files>Archer Tools>ATC_DTSP folder], put in your own coordinates and see what happens. Happy Motoring!