Including Gas Prices in Route Calculations
With average gasoline prices across the U.S.
approaching $4 a gallon, and expected to climb to record highs during
the upcoming summer, it's important to carefully plan vehicle and
other gas usage for your business or organization. Here's how
you can use CDXZipStream settings to incorporate fuel prices when
calculating transportation costs.
CDXZipStream
MapPoint, Basic,and higher versions work in conjunction with
Microsoft MapPoint to calculate driving distance, time, and cost. For
the most accurate cost calculations, route settings can be based on
your particular vehicle miles per gallon performance and current fuel
prices. First, access the MapPoint settings function one of two
ways:
- From the
CDXZipStream toolbar, click on the "Application Settings"
icon (fourth from the left), and click on the Route Settings button,
or
- After
selecting the rigtht-click function CDXRouteMP from the worksheet,
click on the Route Settings button
To set fuel
usage click on the Fuel tab. Input city and highway mpg
performance, and specify the appropriate units (miles per gallon,
liters per 100 kilometers, etc.) as shown below:
Click on the
Driving Costs tab and select "Calculate driving costs based on
fuel price" and enter the price and appropriate units, e.g.
$3.84 per U.S. gallon. Click OK.
Now you're
ready to calculate driving cost. From the main CDXRouteMP input
box, select driving cost as the Route Calculation, or you can also
select a Trip Summary output that will include driving cost
calculations.
If you prefer
to use one of our free, one-click Excel templates for driving calculations,
please go to our links
page and download the Driving Distance Template. You can select
driving cost as the calculation type.
For more
how-to's when doing driving calculations, please see the following
short tutorials:
- Driving
Distance Calculator in Excel
- Driving Distance and Time
Calculations in an Excel Template
