4 ms·

Show HN: A Clojure-based on-demand delivery routing system

86 points by elwell 8y ago

elwell 8y ago
Backstory: We did our last delivery back in late Spring of 2017, though we had experienced a decent amount of traction. The economics of on-demand gas delivery are difficult. B2B (e.g., delivery to car dealerships) seems to be profitable, but it is tough to achieve a price point high enough to warrant B2C sales (though perhaps in some ZIP codes it is possible (e.g., 90210)). It was a fun ride, especially getting to use Clojure. I was the founding engineer (converted from an independent contract), so had plenty of room to make tech decisions. Besides Clojure, there's a mobile app at that link as well, using Sencha Touch Framework. At the time we closed up shop, I had been experimenting with React Native + CLJS. You'll also find an repo called opt that contains some interesting routing optimization algorithms that I did not write (warning, it's one long Java file). On a related note, I'm currently looking for Clojure job opportunities.
- fiddlerwoaroof 8y ago
  While we don’t guarantee that you’ll get to use any particular language, at cj we have a data analytics pipeline written in Clojure and we’re hiring in the LA area https://engineering.cj.com https://engineering.cj.com
- acisneiros 8y ago
  On Clojure job opportunities: you can apply to Nubank, the world’s largest digital bank outside of Asia, and an amazing place to work! Nubank uses Clojure for the vast majority of its backend and some on the frontend as well. Openings at https://sou.nu/jobs-at-nubank https://sou.nu/jobs-at-nubank
- escanda 8y ago
  I am working on a side project related to last mile delivery (shameless plug https://deliveryplannerapp.com https://deliveryplannerapp.com ) and did try many routing libraries: open-vrp, or-tools from Google and Optaplanner. Finally sticked to jsprit. Awesome api and sensible defaults. Highly recommended.
- joeATkira 8y ago
  Hi elwell, Kira Systems is a Clojure shop and we are always looking for individuals with a desire to try new things and build something great. We're based in Canada but have people working remotely. If you're interested, don't hesitate to reach out. You can find more information here: https://www.kirasystems.com/careers/?gh_jid=4122223002 https://www.kirasystems.com/careers/?gh_jid=4122223002
  - mac01021 8y ago
    So you'll consider applicants who live in the USA (not Canadian citizen) and would need to be 100% remote?
- gleenn 8y ago
  Apple has some Clojure positions. I recently just got one actually. https://jobs.apple.com/en-us/search?search=Clojure&sort=relevance&location=united-states-USA https://jobs.apple.com/en-us/search?search=Clojure&sort=rele...
  - imhoguy 8y ago
    Wow. That is super interesting news, I didn't know Apple got into Java and even Clojure.
    - pjmlp 8y ago
      They post regularly Java and Clojure positions. Apple has gotten into Java since OS X early days, when they weren't sure about the current generation of Mac OS developers being willing to adopt Objective-C. So there was Cocoa Java Bridge, QT for Java, their own JVM and WebObjects was rewritten in Java. Even though they got ridden of their Java OS X bindings, WebObjects still powers the Apple Store, for example.
    - Sunscratch 8y ago
      Actually Apple uses Java/Scala a lot, and some of the core contributors to Netty are Apple devs.
- n4r9 8y ago
  I'm interested in the technical optimisation side if you're open to a couple of questions... - I can see that some kind of clustering is occurring whilst assigning orders to couriers. Does this use a standard clustering algorithm (e.g. k-means) or something from scratch? If the latter, would you be able to go into it in a little more detail? - Are you optimising the ordering of items after courier assignment (e.g. insertion/2-opt heuristics), or leaving that to the courier? - It looks like you're using google maps' api to calculate travel times/distances. Does this limit the number of times a client can run the program, depending on their license? - Did any interesting technical assumptions get made based on the type of service being provided? For example, I can see that an estimate of the service duration is made based on the size of the delivery, but I'm wondering if the actual algorithm is affected by the nature of gas delivery.
  - elwell 8y ago
    The optimization code was mostly written by an advisor on the project, Wotao Yin, in Java. He used a custom clustering algorithm, not k-means. We initially tried assigning clusters to couriers, and letting them complete the assigned orders in any ordering (usually according to deadline), however, we ran into issues when new orders came in (especially rushed delivery orders). We settled on a solution of ordering a courier's assignments in an optimized order to increase chance of finishing all assignments on-time, and then only showing the courier one assignment at a time: the top priority assignment. When we closed down, we had been experimenting with factoring in the number of gallons and of what octane each courier was currently carrying. We had a special business license with Google Maps API, but still cached the driving time calculations to speed up the algorithm / save money. Anyways, the routing algorithm only have to run every time the orders/couriers state changes (https://github.com/Purple-Services/app-service/blob/e0a4f74c621159240cff33ed4225a7303524ebf8/src/app/dispatch.clj#L270 https://github.com/Purple-Services/app-service/blob/e0a4f74c...). When you are tracking every couriers' location you can playback GPS coords prior to an accident and determine if their average velocity was higher than acceptable. You can also tell if they aren't on-task after receiving an assignment, or if there are two on-duty couriers in the same car! We experimented with RFID tag + Bluetooth connection to courier's app, to track actual amount of gas delivered as seen by a flow meter. And, we had an algorithm for recommending gas stations for couriers to fill up at based up price / distance. In B2B sales, a VIN scanner in the courier app was useful for reporting.
j_m_b 8y ago
I worked on this as well, mainly on the dashboard-* and portal-* repos. I actually found this position on the Who's Hiring thread here on HN. Happy to answer any questions!

86 points by elwell 8y ago

Backstory: We did our last delivery back in late Spring of 2017, though we had experienced a decent amount of traction. The economics of on-demand gas delivery are difficult. B2B (e.g., delivery to car dealerships) seems to be profitable, but it is tough to achieve a price point high enough to warrant B2C sales (though perhaps in some ZIP codes it is possible (e.g., 90210)). It was a fun ride, especially getting to use Clojure. I was the founding engineer (converted from an independent contract), so had plenty of room to make tech decisions. Besides Clojure, there's a mobile app at that link as well, using Sencha Touch Framework. At the time we closed up shop, I had been experimenting with React Native + CLJS. You'll also find an repo called opt that contains some interesting routing optimization algorithms that I did not write (warning, it's one long Java file). On a related note, I'm currently looking for Clojure job opportunities.

fiddlerwoaroof 8y ago
While we don’t guarantee that you’ll get to use any particular language, at cj we have a data analytics pipeline written in Clojure and we’re hiring in the LA area https://engineering.cj.com https://engineering.cj.com
acisneiros 8y ago
On Clojure job opportunities: you can apply to Nubank, the world’s largest digital bank outside of Asia, and an amazing place to work! Nubank uses Clojure for the vast majority of its backend and some on the frontend as well. Openings at https://sou.nu/jobs-at-nubank https://sou.nu/jobs-at-nubank
escanda 8y ago
I am working on a side project related to last mile delivery (shameless plug https://deliveryplannerapp.com https://deliveryplannerapp.com ) and did try many routing libraries: open-vrp, or-tools from Google and Optaplanner. Finally sticked to jsprit. Awesome api and sensible defaults. Highly recommended.
joeATkira 8y ago
Hi elwell, Kira Systems is a Clojure shop and we are always looking for individuals with a desire to try new things and build something great. We're based in Canada but have people working remotely. If you're interested, don't hesitate to reach out. You can find more information here: https://www.kirasystems.com/careers/?gh_jid=4122223002 https://www.kirasystems.com/careers/?gh_jid=4122223002
- mac01021 8y ago
  So you'll consider applicants who live in the USA (not Canadian citizen) and would need to be 100% remote?
gleenn 8y ago
Apple has some Clojure positions. I recently just got one actually. https://jobs.apple.com/en-us/search?search=Clojure&sort=relevance&location=united-states-USA https://jobs.apple.com/en-us/search?search=Clojure&sort=rele...
- imhoguy 8y ago
  Wow. That is super interesting news, I didn't know Apple got into Java and even Clojure.
  - pjmlp 8y ago
    They post regularly Java and Clojure positions. Apple has gotten into Java since OS X early days, when they weren't sure about the current generation of Mac OS developers being willing to adopt Objective-C. So there was Cocoa Java Bridge, QT for Java, their own JVM and WebObjects was rewritten in Java. Even though they got ridden of their Java OS X bindings, WebObjects still powers the Apple Store, for example.
  - Sunscratch 8y ago
    Actually Apple uses Java/Scala a lot, and some of the core contributors to Netty are Apple devs.
n4r9 8y ago
I'm interested in the technical optimisation side if you're open to a couple of questions... - I can see that some kind of clustering is occurring whilst assigning orders to couriers. Does this use a standard clustering algorithm (e.g. k-means) or something from scratch? If the latter, would you be able to go into it in a little more detail? - Are you optimising the ordering of items after courier assignment (e.g. insertion/2-opt heuristics), or leaving that to the courier? - It looks like you're using google maps' api to calculate travel times/distances. Does this limit the number of times a client can run the program, depending on their license? - Did any interesting technical assumptions get made based on the type of service being provided? For example, I can see that an estimate of the service duration is made based on the size of the delivery, but I'm wondering if the actual algorithm is affected by the nature of gas delivery.
- elwell 8y ago
  The optimization code was mostly written by an advisor on the project, Wotao Yin, in Java. He used a custom clustering algorithm, not k-means. We initially tried assigning clusters to couriers, and letting them complete the assigned orders in any ordering (usually according to deadline), however, we ran into issues when new orders came in (especially rushed delivery orders). We settled on a solution of ordering a courier's assignments in an optimized order to increase chance of finishing all assignments on-time, and then only showing the courier one assignment at a time: the top priority assignment. When we closed down, we had been experimenting with factoring in the number of gallons and of what octane each courier was currently carrying. We had a special business license with Google Maps API, but still cached the driving time calculations to speed up the algorithm / save money. Anyways, the routing algorithm only have to run every time the orders/couriers state changes (https://github.com/Purple-Services/app-service/blob/e0a4f74c621159240cff33ed4225a7303524ebf8/src/app/dispatch.clj#L270 https://github.com/Purple-Services/app-service/blob/e0a4f74c...). When you are tracking every couriers' location you can playback GPS coords prior to an accident and determine if their average velocity was higher than acceptable. You can also tell if they aren't on-task after receiving an assignment, or if there are two on-duty couriers in the same car! We experimented with RFID tag + Bluetooth connection to courier's app, to track actual amount of gas delivered as seen by a flow meter. And, we had an algorithm for recommending gas stations for couriers to fill up at based up price / distance. In B2B sales, a VIN scanner in the courier app was useful for reporting.

j_m_b 8y ago

I worked on this as well, mainly on the dashboard-* and portal-* repos. I actually found this position on the Who's Hiring thread here on HN. Happy to answer any questions!