Question

On my current project, which is a delivery system, I have a list of available delivery drivers, which is shown on an orders page. But what I need is to show the distance each delivery is from the customers address. The distance should be shown next to each driver’s name. Anyone have any clues on how I would go about this?

Answer 1

Assuming that you want driving distance and not straight line distance, you can use the Directions web service:
You need to make an http or https request from your PHP script and the parse the JSON or XML response.

Documentation:
https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/directions/

For example:
Boston,MA to Concord,MA via Charlestown,MA and Lexington,MA (JSON)
http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/directions/json?origin=Boston,MA&destination=Concord,MA&waypoints=Charlestown,MA|Lexington,MA&sensor=false

Boston,MA to Concord,MA via Charlestown,MA and Lexington,MA (XML)
http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/directions/xml?origin=Boston,MA&destination=Concord,MA&waypoints=Charlestown,MA|Lexington,MA&sensor=false

Note that there are usage limits.