I am considering purchasing MP -- I would like to use it to batch calculate 2000+ routes for drive distance. Can I easily automate this in MP?

I only care about the drive distance; I don't want the map, I want a data file.

I can convert my input data into any form required.

Sorry if this is an obvious question.... I'm new at this...

Yes, it is easy to do with Visual Basic and MapPoint.

Just in case you use VB here is a slightly modified sample from the help file. It will give you the drive distance in a message box for a route and of course you could write it to a file insted of sending it to a msgbox.

Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim objApp As New MapPoint.Application
Dim objMap As MapPoint.Map
Dim objRoute As MapPoint.Route

'Set up the application
Set objMap = objApp.ActiveMap
Set objRoute = objMap.ActiveRoute
objApp.Visible = False
objApp.UserControl = True

'Add route stops and calculate the route
objRoute.Waypoints.Add objMap.FindResults("Seattle, WA").Item(1)
objRoute.Waypoints.Add objMap.FindResults("Redmond, WA").Item(1)
objRoute.Calculate

'Find the seventh direction item

n = objRoute.Directions.Count
MsgBox objRoute.Directions.Item(n).ElapsedDistance

End Sub