To optimize a route you must press the Create Route Plan
button that will take you to the Wizard that will guide you to create the route.
Once in it you must complete the following steps:
- Initial information: In this step you must enter the name of the route, the date for when you want to schedule the start of your route, and the time you want it to be considered to schedule destinations. At this point you must define the type of fleet that you will use for the Route Plan, be it Truck / car or bicycle, determining the type of vehicle that you can use on your routes.
- Add clients: At this stage you must define the clients that will be part of your routes. You can add them from the information stored in My Company, which contains the list of all previously created customers, or you can also create completely new customers. To create new clients you can do it individually, filling out the customer fields in the form, or importing multiple entered into an Excel file. Review how to add clients, and what is the format of the Excel file. Once the clients have been selected, a delivery time, a particular time window and skills can be optionally defined for each of them. Check out what a time window is, and what the skills are.
- Add vehicles: In this step you must define the vehicles that will be considered when evaluating the routes. It is possible that not all vehicles entered will be considered. You can add previously created vehicles from My Company, or create a new one by entering the vehicle name, capacity and patent information. For each vehicle you must select a driver, who will be notified when a route is scheduled.
- Optimization settings: Offers a series of variables that are used to improve the prediction of delivery time. Review what you can define in the optimization settings.
After completing these steps, you must press Optimize
. If there are no errors in the data entered, a message with the text Optimizing will be displayed until the system finds the optimized routes. If there is an error in the process, you will be informed through an alert.
The optimization process can take a few seconds or more than a minute depending on the number of customers and vehicles entered, the restrictions defined and the type of search selected.
At the end of the process, the route view of the Routes Editor will appear, which is composed of those associated to each of the vehicles considered. Check how to edit the route, and how to notify your drivers.