Vehicle Length Settings (New)

NOTE: First available in September 2026. North America Only and requires Current data version.

PC*Miler Web Services is transitioning from a single setting for vehicle length to multiple settings that account for both:

• The vehicle’s maximum straight length. (Generally this is the trailer in a tractor/trailer combination, but it could also be a single unit like a box truck or bus.)
• The vehicle’s overall bumper to bumper length, including any trailers or additional units.

This change allows for more accurate routing and better compliance with road restrictions, as some roads may have different rules based on the type of vehicle or its overall length.

How it works

When you configure your vehicle dimensions, you will now have available two separate fields for length:

1. MaxStraightLength (POST requests) or maxStraightLength (GET requests): The length of the longest single unit of your vehicle, such as the trailer in a tractor/trailer combination. It is used to determine if you can fit on roads with straight length turn restrictions. (This works the same as the existing Length (POST requests) and vehLength (GET requests) settings, but it is renamed for clarity.)
2. BumperToBumperLength (POST requests) or bumperToBumperLength (GET requests): The total length of your vehicle from the front bumper to the rear bumper, including any trailers or additional units, and gaps between them. It is used to determine if you can fit on roads with overall length restrictions.

When you request a route, the routing engine will evaluate both of these lengths against the restrictions of each road link. If a road has a straight length restriction that is shorter than your maximum straight length, or an overall length restriction that is shorter than your overall bumper-to-bumper length, that road will be avoided in your route.

Existing Length setting

While these new settings can provide routing improvements, the existing Length setting (which matches the functionality of MaxStraightLength) can be continued to be used. It MUST be used when you want to set vehicle dimensions:

• Outside of North America
• With a numbered PC*Miler dataVersion (e.g. PCM40)

Trailer count

In addition to the new length settings, you can also specify the number of trailers you are pulling. This is important because some roads have restrictions based on the number of trailers, regardless of length.

When you configure your vehicle settings, you can set trlCount (GET requests) or Count (POST requests) in a TrailerCfg object. When setting this, be aware that:

• When Trailer Count is greater than 0, Bumper to Bumper Length must be greater than Maximum Straight Length.
• When Trailer Count is 0, Bumper to Bumper Length must equal Maximum Straight Length.

Vehicle routing profiles

The new length settings and trailer count are now built into PC*Miler’s preset Vehicle Routing Profiles for North America. Routing profiles (passed via the profileName field in API calls) are the best way to ensure consistent vehicle settings across your Routing API requests.

Custom routing profiles

For existing routing profiles created before this change, the previous Length setting will be used. Trailer Count will default to 1 for existing semitrailer profiles (e.g. Default Rating and Heavy Duty Semitrailer), and 2 for Heavy Duty Doubles profiles. This ensures your routes remain consistent with your previous configurations, even if you have not updated the new length settings.