Automated Route Simulation – Simulate Driving Routes

Sending delivery drivers, field sales reps, field service technicians, or other field employees on a route with multiple destinations for the first time is risky and expensive as they may not be familiar with the service area. By simulating planned routes before your field employees ever leave the office/depot/facility/warehouse, you can reduce the amount of time it takes them to drive the multi stop routes and make it more predictable for them. Route simulations are particularly helpful to new drivers that you are training to replace existing drivers. With Route4Me’s Automated Route Simulations, you can show your drivers a controlled route simulation movie that demonstrates exactly what the planned route will look like, where they will turn and the approximate speed of travel along each part of the route optimized by the quickest route planning software.

To simulate a particular route, first, open this route in the Route Editor. After that, go to Tracking in the top right corner of the interactive map and then select Simulation from the list.

Route simulation provides a controlled movie of how the route is expected to be driven in real life. The truck icon represents the position of the vehicle and the driver assigned to the route. To navigate through the simulation, you can use the corresponding control buttons.

To start the simulation, click on the play button.

Once the simulation is initiated, the truck icon starts moving along the route in real time displaying the estimated speed of the vehicle, as well as the time when the vehicle is expected to be at the given location. You can also skip to any time part of the simulation by hovering on the simulation timeline and then clicking on the part of the simulation to which you want to skip.

Routes are simulated in real time, identical to the way they are expected to be driven in real life. Thus, when the route’s total estimated travel time is too long, you can speed up the simulation movie accordingly. To do so, first, click on the corresponding clock icon and then select the preferred simulation speed from the list.

To zoom in on particular parts of the simulation for a more detailed view or adjust the map settings to your preference, you can use the corresponding controls in the top left corner of the interactive map.