Is this feature available?

[DAVIDHURST]

Hi Folks,

I have been tasked with 'travelling salesman' type role, bascailly it entails traveling
to a number (2OO & counting) of deli type establishments throughout the country,
showcasing a number of catering products.

What I need to know, having never owned a external sat-nav such as a TomTom or Garmin,
is can I input a list into the sat-nav namely the business names and addresses before I set out and have them display on the map something like google maps does, ie: a pin to display the next /nearest business on the list, or least tap something so the sat-nav will start again with directions to the next/nearest business.
Such is the range of sat-navs out there I would not know where to start.
I would consider purchasing an Android phone if this is something maybe only available with an app.
Asked for advice in Halfords, but no nearer to a solution.

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[alfie67]

I've used the below (free) website quite successfully for displaying addresses. I can't advise about ability to display the specific name associated with that address; may be too complicated and/or time consuming.

IF you can input all our destinations before setting out in the morning onto a computer, this website will optimize either point A-Z or round trip. You can then input your route via cable onto your GPS. Unfortunately not all GPS units allow inputting routes. You might do some research into the specific make/model to make sure it has that capability first. Once that's established, I'd say "yes" it is possible to do what you want.

http://gebweb.net/optimap/

 

[DAVIDHURST]

Cheers Alfie,

Sounds like that might do the job, I would be inputting both the business name & address
at the same time, it was suggested that I could create 'points of interest' and save each business as a point of interest, and route from each 'point of interest' to the next.
As long as the sat-nav can tell me which of the next two is nearer.
If the feature isn't available...it should be developed. Still thousands of sales men out-there.

 

[Andy_P]

On a TomTom youcan certainly enter the name and address of each location and save them as POIs

If you have a list of the places along with their Lat/Long coordinates, then with the help of one of several utility progs. you can you can easily create a file on your PC that can then be copied to the TomTom in one go. This is what we do for any of the hundreds of POI files available for hotels, restaurants etc.

I believe there MAY be a PC program (or website, I forget which) that will create the file WITHOUT having the LAT/Long coordinates, i.e. just from addresses, but that's not likely to be so accurate.

Once you have the locations on the TomTom as POIs, you can get a list on screen showing how far each is from you (as the crow files). You can then choose "Navigate to..." to be directed to each one in turn, or you can set it to go "via" one or more places on the way to another.

On new models you can add 3 of these "via" points and it will make some effort to visit them in the most sensible order. On old models you could use an "Itinerary" to add upto 48 of those points, but you have to work out the best order yourself..

Be aware that very few satnavs are capable of working out the best order for a round trip of many locations. There are a couple of websites that can, and which can export the required route as an itinerary file, but only the older TomTom models can accept those files.

 

[canderson]

To go directly from a U.S. address to a latitide/longitude that you can plug into various POI utilties, try this site: https://geoservices.tamu.edu/Services/Geocode/Interactive/GeocodeSingleNonParsed.aspx

You'll get totally useless and unnecessary levels of precision (for example, a latitude of 40.1950125905339 !!! --- you just need 40.19501) but it works well and seems to find all the addresses I require.

As for the "Traveling Salesman" issue, providing you can identify the start and end points, this site does pretty well at setting up a rational itinerary to cover all of the intermediate points you provide: http://gebweb.net/optimap/

 

[Andy_P]

To go directly from a U.S. address to a latitide/longitude that you can plug into various POI utilties, try this site: https://geoservices.tamu.edu/Services/Geocode/Interactive/GeocodeSingleNonParsed.aspx

Is that just a "one at a time" lookup/conversion site Chris?

I'm sure I remember one site that allowed you to plug in a whole list of addresses (or maybe UK postcodes?) and get a list of coordinates out of the other end.

 

[dhn]

This site, Andy?

http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/geocoder/

 

[canderson]

To go directly from a U.S. address to a latitide/longitude that you can plug into various POI utilties, try this site: https://geoservices.tamu.edu/Services/Geocode/Interactive/GeocodeSingleNonParsed.aspx

Is that just a "one at a time" lookup/conversion site Chris?

I'm sure I remember one site that allowed you to plug in a whole list of addresses (or maybe UK postcodes?) and get a list of coordinates out of the other end.

They've got a "bulk" lookup option too, as I recall.

Yup...

https://geoservices.tamu.edu/Services/Geocode/BatchProcess/Default.aspx

 

[Andy_P]

Thanks dhn, that's the one I was thinking of. It seems pretty accurate judging by the two test addresses I just tried.

And thanks canderson.. Sorry, I missed that bulk version.