As for Nokia, they have definitely shown some interest both here in Finland and internationally. However, a big ship turns slowly (it seems) and they’re often pretty secretive about everything they don’t officially praise.

That said, I should definitely spread the word better here. I think we’re a bit cautious and slow in some new things here, and that has definitely been the case for Rails. However, the interest is there. Actually, my Ruby/Rails class in May was sold out in less than a week, so there is still hope.

And as you have probably noticed, there is a sore lack of Rails experts in the business at the moment, so maybe it was your destiny to end up working on Rails like this ;-)

I don’t understand the internals of how you generate your quotes, so its difficult to fully answer your question.

However, it is possible to use geocoding to obtain the distance between to UK zipcodes. If the raw distance is all you need, then you are all set. However, if there’s more intelligence behind it (e.g. routing calculations), then the distance will not be enough.

Hope this helps!

Bill

Malcolm

Sorry to hear about your circumstances with Nokia but I think you should always look on the bright said (If your good at what you do then I am sure everything will turn out for the best).
And reading some of your articles seems you know a bit about programming!

I myself run a few sites and have loads of idea’s for new sites and always looking at the latest technology. Not being a programmer I find it hard to understand certain procedures.

I came to your site via Toms Blog about geocoding google maps and I wrote a comment but alas Tom has not responded as of yet (maybe he is away) So I came across your blog and it looks like you also know about geocoding I hope you don’t mind me asking!

But basically I want to know is it possible for me to put two postcodes in like for directions in google maps and use the resulting mileage value and put this value into another calculator for determining a quote! Similar to http://www.ecourier.co.uk and click on quote ( On one of my sites at present I use google maps to get the mileage and then enter the value manually into my simple calculator see here http://www.xclusivechauffeurs.com/routePlanner/

Do you think it is possible to automate this funtion.

Regards

Malcolm