How to Optimize a Route
Every route on the Dispatch board checks its own order in the background. When the same stops in a different order end the day sooner, or reach more customers within their time window, the route says so right under its day. You preview the change first and then decide whether to use it. There is no Optimize button to press any more.
A better order keeps time windows, working hours, skills and vehicle capacity, and stops that are already started stay where they are. The route shows where the day starts and ends as Route start and Route end; click Set there to change them. To adjust a member's other routing settings, click here.
Step 1: Go to the Dispatch menu and pick the day.
Step 2: In the list of members, hover over the member and click the Add to board icon to show their route. You can also simply click the member's name.
Step 3: Look right under the route's day. When a better order exists, you'll see a line such as A better order ends 28m sooner or A better order reaches more customers in their window, and a thin bar compares Your order with the Better order. Click Preview.
Step 4: The preview shows what you gain: Done by … instead of …, the driving time and distance before and after, and whether every time window is kept. Below, it lists stop by stop what moves. On the map, each stop that moves says which number it was (for example was 7). Click Replay on map to watch the change again.
Step 5: Click Use this order to reorder the stops, or Keep mine to leave the route as it is.
Step 6: Changed your mind? Click Undo under the day to put the stops back in their old order. Undo is kept with the route, so it also works later and from another computer.
If the order is already the best one, the route says This order is already the best one. If no better order can be worked out right now, it says so and offers Try again. When the day runs past the end of the shift, the line tells you when the better order ends, for example A better order ends within the shift, at 15:40. Routes are checked for today and coming days, as long as at least two stops are still to go.
Note: Members can still optimize their own route in the mobile app when the Optimize own route permission is on. To learn how to change this permission, click here.