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Optimize Routes

Reorder a driver's stops into the most efficient drive, one lane at a time or all at once.

Route optimization reorders the stops on a driver's lane to minimize driving, then assigns each stop a start and end time. You can optimize one lane or every lane on the day with a single click.

Turn optimization on

An admin enables it on the Routing settings page with Enable route optimization. Optimization calls an external routing service, and a per-call cost applies, which is why it ships as an opt-in toggle. When it's off, the optimize actions don't appear.

Optimize one route

  1. Open the menu on a driver's lane.
  2. Click Optimize route.

The planner reorders the lane's chips, schedules their times, and shows a summary under the driver's name — total distance, drive time, and work time (for example, 47 mi · 1h 23m drive · 6h 30m work).

If you don't like the result, click Undo optimize on the lane to restore the previous order (available until you leave the page).

Optimize every route

Click Optimize All Routes in the top bar. The planner optimizes each unlocked lane and reports how many succeeded. Lanes that couldn't be optimized get a small warning icon in their header — hover it to see why.

What optimization needs

A lane is skipped when any of these apply. The lane shows the reason as a notice you can dismiss:

  • Route optimization is off for this account — turn on the setting above.
  • No stops on this lane to optimize, or the lane is locked.
  • All-day visits prevent optimization — every stop needs a start and end time.
  • One or more visits are missing a geocoded location — the stop's address hasn't been placed on the map yet; fix the client location's address.
  • Driver has no Route Operation set — give the driver a Default operation in their member route settings.
  • Driver's Route Operation is not yet geocoded — the operation's yard/depot address hasn't been placed on the map; set it on the Operations page.

Where the route starts and ends

By default a route starts and ends at the yard/depot address of the driver's default operation. To override this for one driver, open the lane menu and click Set Route Start/End Location. You can set a Start location, an End location, or tick Return to start location to make the route a loop. Any endpoint you leave blank falls back to the yard address.

How stop lengths are calculated

Each stop's duration comes from your Routing settings:

  • Default visit length when optimizing — the per-stop service time used when nothing better is known.
  • Use labor hours for visit length — when on, the optimizer uses each line item's labor estimate instead of the default. A driver's Crew size (in member route settings) is factored in when converting labor hours to on-site time.

Warnings

Optimization never blocks a route, but it flags problems:

  • Optimized — but route runs past workday end — the schedule overflows your workday window. A warning icon stays on the lane until you shorten the route or dismiss the notice.
  • If a lane's last stop ends after the workday even without optimizing, the same Past workday end warning appears.

Note: Prefer a manual touch? Reverse route in the lane menu flips the stop order without calling the optimizer.